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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


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VIKW    ON   THE   RIO    MOTAGUA. 


[Z'ronfiVyjiece.] 


[See  page  414,] 


SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES, 


OR 


RAMBLES  IN  THE  BACKWOODS 


OF 


MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA. 


■Man's  gardens  blossom  in  the  north, 
But  Nature's  in  the  south." — Camoens. 


BY 

FELIX    L.   OSWALD. 


WITH    NUMEEOUS    ILLUSTRATIONS 

BY  H.  F.  FARNV  AND  HERMANN  FABER. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  &  CO. 

1880. 


Copyright,  1880,  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co. 


PREFACE. 


In  the  winter  of  1867  I  was  stationed  at  Medellin,  near 
Vera  Cruz,  as  director  of  an  overcrowded  military  lazaretto. 
With  accommodations  for  sixty  men  we  had  to  take  charge 
of  two  hundred,  besides  feeding  and  nursing  a  considerable 
number  of  destitute  civilians,  both  Indians  and  whites,  who 
had  been  quartered  in  the  loft  of  a  neighboring  cotton-press. 
Our  white  charity  patients  were  neitlier  charitable  nor  pa- 
tient; they  clamored  for  the  expulsion  of  their  Indian 
countrymen,  denounced  the  French  steward  as  an  Oriental 
.barbarian,  and  bemoaned  the  departed  glory  of  the  Repub- 
lic when  I  stO])ped  their  rations  of  smoking-tobacco'.  The 
scum  of  the  Guachinangos,  or  homeless  Creoles  of  the  ad- 
jacent seaport-town,  they  were  a  lot  of  graceless  scamps, 
with  the  apparent  exception  of  a  heroic  old  'longshoreman 
who  had  been  brought  in  an  ambulance  by  a  detachment 
of  the  harbor  police,  having  nearly  bled  to  death  from  two 
wounds  which  looked  very  much  like  French  bayonet  stabs. 

But  the  supposed  exception  confirmed  the  rule  when  our 
hero  turned  out  to  be  a  Tabasco  indigo  planter  who  had 
been  forced  to  join  Rion's  guerillas,  and  after  the  defeat  of 
his  corps  and  the  confiscation  of  his  j)roperty  had  made  liis 
way  to  Vera  Cruz,  wounded  and  penniless,  in  the  hope  of 
gaining  admission  to  the  City  Hospital.  His  recovery  was 
slow,  but  from  first  to  last  he  behaved  with  a  fortitude  that 
won  him  the  respect  of  his  military  nurses,  and  by  and  by 
the  sympathy  of  our  city  visitors.     A  Vera  Cruz  mercliant 

5 

773809 


6  PREFACE. 

sent  him  a  fine  saddle-horse,  and  before  I  discharged  him 
■we  collected  money  enough  to  help  him  over  the  first  six 
months,  or  across  the  ocean  if  he  should  prefer  to  leave  the 
country.  He  was  a  native  of  Kens  in  Western  Catalonia. 
Mexico  was  on  the  eve  of  a  general  revolution,  and  the 
State  of  Tahasco  was  still  under  martial  law;  but  the 
ranchcro  decided  to  stay. 

"  Twelve  years  ago  I  crossed  the  ocean  of  my  own  accord, 
and  I  do  not  repent  it  even  now,"  he  said,  when  he  mounted 
his  horse  at  the  hospital  gate.  "  Mexico  is  the  freest  country 
on  earth,  after  all.  They  may  blockade  the  valleys,  and 
change  their  President  for  a  Sultan,  for  all  I  care;  but  there 
is  freedom  in  the  mountains,  and  I  know  a  place  of  refuge 
where  neither  raonarchs  nor  demagogues  will  bother  me." 

After  the  restoration  I  transferred  my  medical  apparatus 
to  the  Vera  Cruz  City  Dispensary,  and  the  health  officer  of 
the  quarantine  having  tendered  his  resignation,  the  foreign 
residents  recommended  me  as  his  successor,  Avith  a  view  of 
testing  the  efficacy  of  a  system  of  sanitary  precautions, 
whose  adoption  I  had  urged  for  many  years.  But  the  fal- 
lacy of  that  system  was  demonstrated,  to  my  personal  satis- 
faction at  least,  by  the  collapse  of  my  own  health.  Neither 
surf-baths  nor  dietetic  Siicrifices  would  avail  me ;  the  climate 
refuted  the  most  cogent  pathological  axioms ;  and  I  was  on 
the  })oint  of  embarking  for  a  less  paradoxical  latitude,  when 
I  remembered  the  man  of  Reus  and  his  solution  of  a  simi- 
lar dilemma.  Learning  that  there  was  a  junta  of  inspecting 
officers  at  the  fort,  I  called  upon  a  former  colleague,  now 
Surgeon-General  and  member  of  the  Government  Immi- 
gration Committee.  Soon  after  his  return  to  the  capital  I 
received  a  communication  from  the  Department  of  the  In- 
terior, and  on  the  same  day  I  exchanged  a  sea-water  proof 
trunk  for  a  Mexiciui  pack-saddle.     The  coast  range  was 


PREFACE.  y 

shrouded  with  the  mists  of  the  rainy  season,  and  my  coun- 
trymen dismissed  me  with  sore  misgivings,  and  gave  nie 
up  for  lost  when  they  learned  that  a  congestive  chill  had 
arrested  my  progress  at  Puebla,  but  my  next  letter  reassured 
them. 

""  Mexico  is  the  healthiest  country  on  earth,  after  all," 
I  wrote  from  Tacubaya,  the  Montmartre  of  the  Mexican 
capital ;  "  the  fever  may  blockade  your  seaports  and  terror- 
ize the  lowlands  from  Matamoros  to  Yucatan,  but  in  the 
mountains  is  freedom,  and  I  have  found  a  place  of  refuge 
where  miasmi  and  mosquitoes  will  never  bother  me." 

In  the  course  of  the  next  eight  years  I  explored  the  high- 
lands of  Jalisco,  Oaxaca,  Colima,  and  Vera  Paz,  for  the 
benefit  of  my  own  health  or  that  of  my  employers,  but  like 
the  Catalan  farmer,  I  found  more  than  I  had  sought.  In- 
dependence, in  the  political  sense,  and  a  healthy  climate 
might  be  found  in  the  mountains  of  Scotland,  and  even  of 
old  Spain ;  but  the  New  Spanish  sierras  can  boast  of  a 
virgin  soil  with  primeval  forests  which  offer  a  sanitarium  to 
all  who  seek  refuge  from  the  malady  of  our  anti-natural 
civilization,  from  the  old  maraswiwsSvhich  has  spread  from 
the  Syrian  desert  to  the  aban3tmeeHx)tton-fields  of  Georgia 
and  Alabama. 

We  vaunt  our  proficiency  in  the  art  of  subjugating  na- 
ture, but  in  the  Old  World  the  same  ambition  has  led  to  a 
very  dear-bought  victory,  which  the  countries  of  the  East 
have  paid  with  the  loss  of  their  forests,  and  the  Eastern 
nations  with  the  loss  of  their  manhood ;  their  wild  wootl- 
lands  have  been  tamed  into  deserts,  and  their  wild  freemen 
into  slaves  ;  the  curse  of  the  blighted  land  has  recoiled  upon 
its  devastators.  In  our  eagerness  to  wrest  the  sceptre  from 
our  Mother  Earth  we  have  invaded  her  domain  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  instead  of  increasing  the  interest  of  our  heritage 


8  PREFACE. 

we  have  devoured  the  principal ;  the  brilliant  progress  of  the 
vain  god  of  earth  is  tracked  by  a  lengthening  shadow,  the 
dav-star  of  our  emi)ire  is  approaching  the  western  horizon. 
Wliere  shall  it  end  ?  Mould,  sandy  loam,  and  sand  is 
Liebig's  degeneration  scale  of  treeless  countries ;  the  Amer- 
ican soil  may  j^ass  through  the  same  phases,  and  what  then  ? 
AVill  the  sunset  in  the  Mcst  be  followed  by  a  new  eastern 
sunrise  ?  Shall  Asia,  the  mother  ot  religions,  give  birth  to 
an  earth-regenerating  Messiah,  whose  gospel  shall  teach  us 
to  recognize  the  physical  laws  of  God  ?  Or  shall  the  gloam- 
ing fade  into  the  night  of  the  Buddhistic  Nirvana,  the  final 
extinction  of  organic  life  on  this  planet?  It  is  not  much  of 
a  consolation  to  think  that  in  the  latter  case  the  nations  of 
the  higher  latitudes  might  count  upon  a  protracted  twilight. 
The  westward  spread  of  the  landblight  will  drive  the  fam- 
ished millions  of  the  Old  World  upon  our  remaining  wood- 
lands, but  the  resources  of  the  last  Oasis  will  probably  be 
husbanded  with  Scotch  canniness  and  Prussian  systematism, 
and  before  we  share  the  fate  of  the  Eastern  nations  we  may 
see  the  dawn  of  the  bureaucratic  millennium,  when  all  our 
fields  shall  be  fenced  in  with  brick  walls,  all  rivers  with 
irrigation-dykes,  and  all  functions  of  our  domestic  life  with 
official  laws  and  by-laws.  ]My  trust  in  the  eternal  mercy  of 
Providence  lets  me  expect  another  deluge  before  that  time, 
but  the  recui)erative  agencies  of  unaided  nature  seem  power- 
less against  the  greatest  of  all  earthly  evils.  National  and 
territorial  marasnuis  are  incurable  diseases ;  the  historical 
records  of  the  Eastern  continents,  at  least,  prove  nothing  to 
the  contrary.  The  coast-lands  of  the  Mediterranean  were 
the  pleasure-gardens  of  the  Juventus  Mundi,  the  Elysian 
Fields  whose  inhabitants  celebrated  life  as  a  festival ;  and 
now  ?  Spain,  Southern  Italy,  Turkey,  Greece,  and  Persia 
have  l>een  wasted  to  a  shadow  of  their  former  self;  ghouls 


PREFACE.  9 

and  afrits  haunt  the  burial-places  of  the  North  African 
empires ;  and  no  invocation  can  break  the  death-slumber  of 
Asia  Minor.  Acorns  perish  in  the  soil  which  once  nour- 
ished the  oaks  of  Bashan ;  outraged  nature  refuses  to  be 
reconciled.  With  the  glory  of  the  Orbis  Roinanns  the 
spring-time  of  our  earth  has  departed,  and  what  America 
mistakes  for  the  prime  of  a  new  year  is  but  the  lingering 
mildness  of  an  Indian  summer. 

The  career  whose  swiftness  is  our  national  boast  has  led 
us  upon  a  road  which  has  never  been  far  pursued  with  im- 
punity ;  the  rapidity  of  our  tree  and  game  destruction  is  far 
more  unparalleled  than  the  growth  of  our  cities ;  the  misery 
of  the  Old  World  has  not  taught  us  to  avoid  its  causes,  and 
the  history  of  the  effects  will  not  fail  to  repeat  itself.  On 
the  frozen  shores  of  Lake  Winnepeg  and  the  inaccessible 
heights  of  the  central  Rocky  Mountains  a  few  remnants  of 
the  old  forests  will  probably  survive,  but  the  great  East 
American  Sylvania  is  already  doomed ;  if  we  persist  in  our 
present  course  our  last  timber-States,  Maine,  Michigan,  and 
North  Carolina,  will  be  as  bald  as  Northern  Italy  in  fifty 
years  from  now,  and  our  last  game  will  soon  retreat  to  the 
festering  swamps  of  Southern  Florida. 

The  temperate  zone  of  America  will  soon  be  the  treeless 
zone,  with  a  single  exception.  In  the  sierras  of  Southern 
Mexico  large  tracts  of  land  still  combine  a  generous  climate 
with  a  rich  arboreal  vegetation.  Mexico,  like  our  own 
Republic,  has  her  backwoods  States,  but  their  security  from 
the  inroads  of  the  destroyer  is  guaranteed  by  better  safe- 
guards than  their  remoteness  from  the  great  commercial 
centres.  The  ruggedness  of  the  surrounding  sierras",  the 
supposed  or  real  scarcity  of  precious  metals,  and  the  inde- 
pendent character  of  the  aboriginal  population,  all  conspire 
to  make  the  alturas  or  mountain  forests  as  unattractive  to 

1* 


IQ  PREFACE. 

the  imperious  Spaniards  as  they  are  inviting  to  freedom- 
loving  visitors  from  the  North. 

To  my  rambles  and  adventures  in  these  alturas,  to  their 
scenic  charms,  their  strange  fauna  and  vegetable  wonders,  I 
have  devoted  this  volume ;  but  I  have  rarely  touched  upon 
the  mineral  and  agricultural  resources  of  a  region  which 
should  remain  consecrate  to  the  Hamadryads  and  their  wor- 
shippers. The  cities  of  the  intervening  "  civilized"  districts, 
too,  I  have  only  mentioned  as  wayside  stations  for  the  benefit 
of  non-pedestrian  tourists.  New  Spain  makes  no  exception 
from  the  general  rule  that  the  nations  of  Europe  have  trans- 
formed their  American  dependencies  after  the  image  of  their 
mother-countries,  and  only  he  who  leaves  the  cities  far 
behind  can  forget  that  Mexico  was  colonized  under  the 
auspices  of  St.  Jago  and  Ximenes. 

This  collection  of  "  Summerland  Sketches"  is  therefore 
neither  a  record  of  a  pilgrimage  to  the  shrines  and  cathe- 
drals of  Spanish  America,  nor  a  bid  for  the  patronage  of 
Southwestern  land-agencies,  but  rather  a  guide-book  to  one 
of  the  few  remaining  regions  of  earth  that  may  give  us  an 
idea  of  tlie  tree-land  eastward  in  Eden  which  the  Creator 
intended  for  the  abode  of  mankind.  In  the  terrace-lands  of 
Western  Colima  and  Oaxaca,  near  the  head- waters  of  the  Rio 
Lerma  and  the  mountain  lakes  of  Jalisco,  and  in  the  lonely 
highlands  of  Vera  Paz,  we  may  yet  see  forests  that  have 
never  been  desecrated  by  an  axe,  and  free  fellow-creatures 
which  have  not  yet  learned  to  flee  from  man  as  from  a  fiend. 

Let  us  make  the  best  of  that  last  chance,  for  the  time  may 
be  near  when  princes  and  sages  .shall  envy  those  who  have 
managed  to  get  a  glimpse  of  Paradise  before  the  gates  were 
closed  forever. 

FELIX   L.  OSWALD. 

CiNCixxATi,  March^  1880. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 


Southward  Ho  ! — The  "Gila  City" — Fellow-Passengers — Vigils 
on  the  Pilot-Deck — Climatic  Reflections — The  Birthland  of  the 
Human  Race — Southern  Homesickness — The  Saturnian  Age — 
Paradise  Theories — America  Felix — Arrival  in  Guaj'mas — 
The  Morgan  Transport  Company — Prairie-Schooners — Boss 
Davis — A  Mexican  Caravansary — Departure  from  Guaymas — 
The  Yega — Our  First  Camp — Don  Jose's  Advice — Paso  del 
Cabo — The  Chieftain's  Ford — An  Indian  Brutus — Sand-Hills 
— The  Gila  Desert — Pays  de  la  Muerte — The  American  Tim- 
buktoo — An  Embryo  Sahara — Origin  of  the  Treeless  Table- 
Lands — Professor  Buckland's  Conjecture — The  Plateau  of  En- 
cinal — A  Natural  Game-Preserve — The  Oriyas — Night  Camp 
in  the  Ruins  of  Azatlan — Disagreeable  Visitors — The  Rio 
Mayo — Buffalo  Hunters — Aragon  Shepherds'  Dogs — A  Do- 
mestic Beast  of  Prey — Pronghorn  Antelopes — The  Sergeant's 
Wager — A  Match  for  a  Greyhound — Exciting  Chase — Cha- 
parral Cocks — The  Phasianus  Alector — Chickasaw  Plums — 
Wild  Jessamine — Butterfly  Swarms — De  Leon's  Land — The 
American  Italy — Val  de  Canas — Don  Pancho's  Ranch — 
Mexican  Hospitality  —  New  Texas  —  Northern  Colonists — 
Chronique  Scandaleuse  of  a  Mule-Farm — A  Horse-Breaker's 
Secret — Taming  a  Bison — A  Wooden  Briareus — The  Canas 
Valley — Are  Hogs  Snake-Proof?  Don  Pancho's  Theory — 
Woman's  Rights  Limited — Toxicological  Precautions — The 
Oasis  of  Encinal — Camp  in  a  Mulberry-Grove — Locust  Or- 
chestra— Coyote  Concerts — Vox  Clamantis  in  Deserto      .         .     21 

11 


12  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    II. 

COLIMA. 

PAOE 

Republican  Highways— The  Geyser  of  Aguas  Calientes— Valley 
of  the  Rio  Fuerte— The  "  Tree- Alligator"— Meeting  a  Country- 
man—A Linguistic  Exile— Camp  in  a  Bignonia-Grove— Arid 
Mountains— The  Unpardonable  Sin  of  Forest-Destruction— 
Ygdrasil— A  Wayside  Tavern— News  from  the  Frontier- 
International  Banter— San  Luis  Potosi— Witch-Hunters— Dr. 
Rambert's  Experience— Departure  for  San  Bias— The  Virgin 
Woods  of  the  Rio  Balsas— A  Sierra  Incognita— The  Old  Mili- 
tary Road — An  Entomological  Paradise — The  Papilio  Castor — 
Cow-Riders- Rustic  Prejudices— Camp  in  a  Pine-Forest— Di- 
etetic Experiments — Dr.  Rambert's  Dilemma — Our  Indian 
Purveyor— A  Persistent  Peddler — Chile  Blanco  y  Colorado — 
A  Patriotic  Handkerchief— Bat  Colony— Ferae  Naturse- The 
Night-Tiger — A  Mexican  Bugbear — Juan  Rivera's  Fate — A 
Hunter  Hunted — Tackling  a  Tartar — Mountain  Forests — The 
Voices  of  the  Wilderness  ........     54 

CHAPTER    III. 

THE    LAKE-REGION    OF    JALISCO. 

Lake  Chapala — A  Tropical  Switzerland — View  from  the  Sierra 
Madre — The  Alturas — Mountain  Woods — Juventus  Mundi — 
The  Lake-Shore — Black  Herons — Wooded  Islands — The  Cas- 
cades of  the  Rio  Blanco — Val  de  Paraiso — A  Vanilla  Planta- 
tion— Casa  Morena — Don  Martinez— Walton  Redivivus — 
Aquatic  Curiosities — A  Private  Museum — The  Hog-Tapir — 
An  Expensive  Pet — Its  Paroxysms  of  Appetite — Hot  Sulphur- 
Springs  —The  Fountain  of  Eternal  Coughs — Indian  Gluttony — 
Fried  Eels  and  Sulphvir-Water — Evening  Rambles— Camping 
in  Eden — Camp-Fire  Stories — Don  Martinez's  Adventure — 
Curious  Phenomenon — Cross-Examination — An  Unscientific 
Witness — Moonlight  on  the  Lake — The  Rio  Lerma — Travel- 
ling Companions — Wild  Hogs — Long-Range  Arrow-Shooting 
— Migratory  Quadrupeds — The  Coast-Hills — In  Sight  of  Ma- 
zatlan — Arrival  at  San  Bias — Spanish  Characteristics — A  Mexi- 
can Hotel — Pepper-Pots — Dietetic  Abuses  vs.  Intemperance — 
Hint  to  Travellers  in  Spanish  America — A  Negro  Polyglot — 
S\inset  on  the  Pacific— At  the  Mouth  of  the  Rio  Lerma — View 
from  the  Promontory  ........     83 


CONTENTS.  13 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE    WESTERN    SIERRAS. 

PAGE 

San  Bias — Engage  a  Guide — Mexican  Stage-Coaches — A  Tolerant 
Conductor — Dogs  and  Goats  as  Inside  Passengers — Dust-Clouds 
of  the  Vega — Ascent  of  the  Coast- Range — The  Granite-Alps  of 
Jalisco — Bombax  Forests — Climatic  Paradoxes — Val  de  Cule- 
bras — A  Serpent-Colony — Vivora  Parda — Historical  Serpents 
— A  Conjecture — Night-Camp  in  the  Sierra  de  Inua — Starlight 
— The  Regio  Septentrionalis — Wild  Scenery — Bighorn  Sheep — 
Mountain  Antelopes — Their  Confidence — The  Volcano  of  Cu- 
liacan — Inaccessible  Peaks — Home  of  the  Jaliscano  Indians — 
A  Pagan  Reservation — Defile  of  Santander — The  Plateau  of  Las 
Charcas — Arctic  Vegetation — Ascent  of  the  "  Altar" — Bird's- 
Eye  View  of  a  Volcanic  Phenomenon — A  Land  of  Flowers 
— Pot-Hunters — Desperate  Charge  of  a  "Wild  Boar — Adonis — 
A  Lucky  Shot — Hacienda  del  Monte — The  Governor  of  Jalisco 
— A  Mexican  Philosopher — His  Opinion  on  Woman's  Rights — 
On  the  Religion  of  the  Future — Bachelor's  Hall — Question- 
able Pastimes^Breaking  a  Grizzly — A  Famous  Bull — Padre 
Felipe's  Pets — Trip  to  the  Val  de  San  Juan — An  Indian  Wal- 
halla — Temple  Ruins  of  Mayapan— Christian  Iconoclasts — 
The  Marvel  of  Atocha — A  Symbol  of  the  Moon — Lapidary 
Inscriptions — A  Problematic  Statue — The  Jaliscano  Indians — 
Curious  Customs — Adherence  to  Pagan  Rites — Traditions — 
A  Famous  Chieftain  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .113 

CHAPTER    V. 

THE    SIERRA    MADRE. 

Ascent  of  Mount  Orizaba — Black-Tail  Deer — Lonely  Heights — 
The  Snow-Line — Excelsior — An  Unrivalled  Panorama — The 
Two  Oceans — Gulf  Islands — Our  Mediterranean  Sea — The 
Peak  of  Perote — Glaciers  of  the  Sierra  de  San  .Juan — -Mountain 
Scenery — Terrace-Lands — Contrasted  Vegetation — The  Con- 
iferous Belt — Forced  March — Pine-Forests — Alpine  Flora — 
Mountain  Grouse — The  Caiion  of  the  Rio  Blanco — Deserted 
Mining- Works — Camp  in  the  Old  Quartel — Fireside  Com- 
forts— A  Free  and  Easy  Symposium — Ease  vs.  Luxury — Jose's 
Ghost  Story — La  Llorona — Origin  of  an  International  Super- 


1 4  CONTENTS. 


PAUE 


stition— The  Tuxpan's  Testimonial— A  Cold  Night— Fire- 
Worship— Sunrise  in  the  Sierra  Madre— Morning  Air— The 
Valley  of  the  Rio  Blanco— Barrancas— Limestone  Caves— A 
Colony  of  Vultures — Winged  Kidnappers — Ganymede — Tres- 
montes— Monastery  of  San  Rafael— A  Mountain  Convent        .   151 


CHAPTER    VI. 

LA    TIERRA    FRI..  . 

The  Convent  of  San  Rafael— A  Museum  in  a  Church— Padre 
Ramon— A  Self-taught  Mineralogist — Crudities  of  Spanish 
Science — Scientific  Curiosity — Deficiencies  of  the  Modern  Latin 
Races — The  Night  of  the  Middle  Ages — A  Strange  Curiosity- 
Shop —  Secular  Ornaments  —  A  Free  and  Easy  Convent — 
Privileged  Friars — Villa  Amorosa — The  "Children  of  the 
Convent"  —  Precocious  Depravity  —  Pablito's  Experiment — 
Can  Squirrels  be  Killed  by  a  Fall  ?— Salto  Mortale— Mountain 
Vegetation — Turpentine  Works — Bewitched  Bats — A  Curious 
Problem — Val  de  Perote — New-Spanish  Robber  Castles — 
Mountain  Air — A  Lung-Test — Don  Jose  M'Cann — A  Car- 
nivorous Hermit  —  La  Trampa  —  An  Eating  Match — -The 
Charms  of  Solitude — Dumb  Companions — Voices  of  the  Night 
— The  Pinal  de  Loreto — Pine-Jungles  —  Indian  Outlaws  — 
Eagle's  Nest — Mountain  Weasels — Spinescent  Trees — Vegeta- 
ble Instinct — Val  de  Perote — The  Old  Fort — Classic  Pastimes 
— The  Vegos  Brothers — A  Foot-Race — Juancito's  Stratagem — 
Gymnastic  Emulation — The  Olympic  Games :  What  Nation 
will  Revive  Them  ? 182 

CHAPTER    VII. 

THE    VALLEY    OF    OAXACA. 

Tehuantepec — Aspect  of  the  Coast  —  Dissolving  Views — Mist- 
Shrouded  Lowlands — The  Rainy  Season — A  Strange  Pano- 
rama— Cloudless  Heights — The  Llanos  Ventosos — Landing  in 
a  Squall — Tehuantepec  Guides — A  Travelling  Companion — 
Rain-Bound— Blockade-Running — Horrible  Roads — The  Mud- 
Belt  of  the  Tierra  Caliente — The  Hummock  Region — Wild 
Orchards — A    Forced    Night-March — Mosquito    Jungles — A 


CONTENTS.  15 


Place  of  Eefuge-Night-Voices-The  Happiness  of  Contrast- 
Eeveille-Sunrise   in   the   Foothills-Air   de   Mille   Fleurs- 
Woodland  Odors-Bird-Voices-A  Morning  Hymn-The  Val- 
ley of  the  Rio  Verde-Reptilian  and  Entomological  Bugbears 
-Harmless     Snakes-Vegetable   Wonders-The    Cypress    of 
Maria   del   Tule-Val   de   Morillo- Orange   Gardens -The 
American  Daphne-Tropical  Butterflies-Catching  Butterflies 
for  a  Living-New  Bern- Swiss  Colonists-Enviable  Home- 
steads-The  Climate  of  the  Llanos  Ventosos-Pastor  Wenks's 
Weather   List  -  Creature   Comforts -Wild   Fruits  -  Cheap 
Venison-Market  Quotations-A  Winter  Resort  for  Consump- 
tives-Resources of  the  Tierra   Caliente-Falcon   Hunters- 
Valuable  Dogs— Treeing  a  Puma— Las  Cascadas— A  Private 
Zoo-Pet  Reptiles  and  Carnivora  :  Their  Ridiculous  Tameness 
—How  to  Break  Dogs  from  Chicken-Stealing-Supposed  Case 
of  Hydrophobia  in  a  Monkey-A  Test  of  Courage-Cicuta 
Poison-A  Strange  Tipple-Fuddling  with  Water  Hemlock- 
Can   all    Poisons   become   a    "Second    Nature"  ?-Capuchin 
Monkeys  :  Their  Obstinacy-A  Beast-Tamer  Nonplussed-The 
Limestone  Caves  of  the  Sierra  Honda-Las  Tunas-A  Convent 
Festival— Monastic  Bonvivants-Fete  Champetre-A  Spanish 
Hercules— The  Padre  Vicario's  Wager— Tropical  Moonlight 
— "LaVirgen  del  Pilar"— Nocturnal  Dances— A  Sanitarium 
for  Pessimists      .         •         •  .         .         .         • 


219 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    DELTA    OF    THE    SUMASINTA    RIVER. 

A  Shoreless  River  -  Tanglewood-The  Swamp-Labyrinth - 
Strongholds  of  the  Wilderness-Animal  Reservations-Man's 
Power  and  its  Limits-Inundated  Forests-Driftwood  Chaos- 
The  Raft  Faluca— Dangerous  Navigation— The  Negro  Pilot- 
Floating  Islands-A  River-Lake-Land  at  Last-Camp  on 
Terra  Firma-Courting  Sleep  under  Difliculties-Mosquitology 
—Heroic  Remedies— Can  the  Human  Skin  become  Gnat-Proof? 
—Under  Weigh— The  Swamp-Otter— Its  Curious  Burrows— 
Sweetwater  Dolphins  -  Indian  Superstitions  -  Swarms  of 
Water  Fowl-Corrientes-A  Queer  Depot-Pinto  Wigwam- 
Trapping  an  Alligator— A  Surprised  Saurian-Settling  Old 
Scores-Vffi   Victis-The  Wigwam   Belles-The   Costume  of 


Ig  COXTEXT^. 


PAGr 


the  Xereids — Pepitas  Bonnet — A  CajU5  Belli — Inconvertible 
Bipeds — Father  Cristovals  Lament  —  Rio  Gordo — Aquatic 
Hunting-Ground? — Habita  of  the  Jaguar — Baiting  a  Trap  with 
a  Corpse — A  Curious  Case  of  Blood-Poisoning — The  Mission 
of  San  Gabriel — Major  Casales — A  Swamp  Oasis — Lago  de 
Pat<:>s — River  Pirates — Their  Inaccessible  Retreats — A  Chron- 
icle of  the  Wilderness — Mysterious  Visitors — A  Four-Legged 
Lothario — Curious  Instinct  of  a  Tame  Monkey — Boa-Shoot- 
ing— A  Pinto  Patriarch — Indian  Renegades — Impious  In- 
scriptions— Boasting  a  Boa — Gastronomic  Reflections — The 
Delta  of  the  Sumasinta  River — Lago  de  Terminos — ^A  Pathless 
"Wilderness — Jack  o'  Lantern — Carmen  Harbor        .         .         .  2-5-5 


CHAPTER    IX. 

RAMBLES    IN    VrCATAX. 

The  American  Hindostan  —  Indestructible  Forests — Yucatan 
Indians — A  Belligerent  Peninsula — Free-Soilers — An  Ethno- 
logical Problem — San  Joaquin — Tropical  Fruits  in  Midwinter 
— The  Teamster  from  Tennessee — A  "Water-Cure — The  Arenal 
— Evergreen  Forests — A  Summerland — Arboreal  Quadrupeds 
— El  Hormiguero — A  Gypsy  Camp — The  Tabascanos — Shoot- 
ing Frugivorous  Bats  for  Supper — De  Gustibus,  etc. — Macoba 
— Plum-Pudding  Day — An  Elaborate  Feast — Victimized  by 
Indian  Hogs — The  Avenger — Lynching  a  Lunch-Fiend — 
Christmas  Eve  —  Kettle-Drums — Indian  Converts — Heavy- 
Armed  Missionaries — Dogs  as  Tax-Collectors — Reclaiming  an 
Apostate  —  Don  Pedro  Santo — The  Dangers  of  ITnbelief — 
Striking  and  Shooting  Arguments — Cerro  de  Macoba — Vestiges 
of  Former  Civilization — Summer  Diet — Frugality — Christmas 
Dinner — In  the  Greenwood  Shade — Arcadian  Pastimes — Xorth 
and  South— Day-Dreams— The  Camino  Real — "Weather  Proph- 
ets— Ominous  Sounds — Chased  by  a  Tornado — The  '-Tower- 
House''— Just  in  Time— A  Tropical  Thunderstorm— Jupiter 
Tonans  —  Von  Haller's  Conjecture  —  A  Mountain-Farm  — 
Monkey   Traps — Carnivorous   Squirrels — An  L'nlucky  Pet — 

The   Banana   Zone — Spontaneous    Orchards — "Wild   Honey 

Cheapness  of  Happiness  in  the  Tropics— Our  Lost   Garden- 
Home  •••-•......  290 


CONTENTS.  17 

CHAPTER    X. 

THE    AMERICAN    POMPEII. 

PAGE 

Ruins  of  the  New  World — Man  and  Nature — Fate  of  the  Aryan 
Empires — A  Strange  Contrast— Redeemed  Deserts — Prehistoric 
Cities — Chichen — Macoba — The  Discovery  of  Uxmal — Baron 
Waldek"s  Account — An  Archjeological  Treasure-Trove— Don 
Yegros  Guest — A  Lucky  Accident — Arrival  at  TJxmal — The 
Majordomo — Our  Cicerone — The  '•  Governor's  House" — El 
Palomal — Spanish  Xomenclature — The  Nunnery — A  Sculp- 
tured Coliseum — Startling  Frescos — The  House  of  the  Dwarf— 
"Altar  of  Abraham"  "—Gigantic  Ruins— The  Oldest  Inhabitant 
—A  Problematic  Quadruped— The  •' Town-Crier" —Curious 
Inscriptions — Sculptured  Nondescripts — The  Sphinx — Camp- 
ing in  a  Palace  of  Unknown  Kings — Fireside  Tales — La 
Rebosada  —  Outwitting  a  Night-hag  —  A  Narrow  Escape  — 
Indian  Traditions  —  Legend  of  the  Nunnery  —  Nocturnal 
Dancers — Sensitive  Spooks — A  Disappointed  Treasure-Hunter 
— Historical  Enigmas — The  Malady  of  Civilization — Nature"5 
Remedy — Redeemed  Ruins         .....••  326 

CHAPTER    XI. 

THE    BACKWOODS    OF    GUATEMALA. 

The  American  Siam  —  Nature's  Botanic  Garden  —  The  Palm- 
Forests  of  Vera  Paz — A  Transcontinental  Bridie-Path — A 
Pleasant  Companion — The  Spider-Monkey — Monkey-Lore — 
Don  Ruans  Theory — Bird- Voices — Ornithological  Curiosities 
— Among  the  Parrots — The  Purple  Macaw — Outshining  a 
Peacock — Rio  Moscoh — Camp  in  the  Tree-tops — Excelsior — 
Tree  Rats — An  Unsolved  Mystery — Grass  Fog — A  Snake-Panic 
—Spider- Monkeys  —  Monkey-Shooting  —  A  Half-Homicide — 
Baby  Monkeys — Love  after  Death— A  Logwood  Camp — Dark- 
ness during  a  Rainstorm — Do  Animals  enjoy  Rain? — Sloths  and 
Monkeys— Their  Indifference  to  a  Pelting  Shower— A  Slothful 
Familv — My  Indian  Guide — Walking  Barefoot  in  a  Jungle — 
Natural  Sole-Leather — Advantages  of  a  Hardy  Education — Is 
Health  the  Summum  Bonum  ? — The  Charms  of  Savage  Life — 
Hunting-Grounds  of  the  Casca  Indians — Forest  Nomads— 
Casca  Wigwam — A  Precocious  Muchacho— Knowing  Babes 
in    the    Woods— Precocitv   of    the    Inferior    Races— Animal 


18  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Analogies — Capture  of  a  Young  Ant-Bear — Its  Awful  Shrieks 
— Arhoreal  Nosegays — The  White  Blooming  Cecropia — Gor- 
geous Butterflies— Edible  Fruit  of  the  Quercus  Ilex — The 
Gusano  Infernal — A  Dwarf  Eattlesnake:  Eifects  of  its  Bite 
on  Dogs  ;  on  an  Indian  Child — Queer  Kemedies — First  View 
of  the  Sierra  Negra — Val  de  Tortugas — Mountain  Lakes — 
Turtle-Egg  Hunters — A  Visit  to  their  Rendezvous — Wayside 
Stores — A  Bucolic  Instrument — Tortugas — An  Indian  Patri- 
arch— Cutting  a  Third  Set  of  Teeth — Unimpeachable  Testi- 
mony— Parched  Corn  Bread  vs.  Sozodont— Ethnological  Re- 
flections        362 

CHAPTER    XII. 

THE    VIRGIN     WOODS    OF    THE    SIERRA    XEGRA. 

Daybreak — Sun-Gilt  Peaks — Ascent  of  the  Sierra  Negra — The 
Weather-Saint  —  Mountain  Forests  —  El  Animalote  —  Boa- 
Shooting — Tenacity  of  Life  in  a  Snake — The  Canon  of  the 
Rio  Motagua — A  River  dissolved  into  Spray — A  Tropical 
Yosemite — Pine  Woods — A  Highland  Ranch — Gil  Mateo's 
Boys — A  Self-Reliant  American — The  Casucha — A  Hunter's 
Castle — Living  in  an  Arbor — Indian  Pot-Hunters — A  Game- 
law-less  Land — Value  of  a  Squirrel-Gun — A  Humble  Visitor — 
The  Guachinos — Indian  Remedy  for  Lovesickness — A  Youth- 
ful Suicide — The  Eastern  Slopes  of  the  Sierra  Negra — Their 
Beauty  and  Loneliness — Wild  Pineapples — Alpine  Pastures — 
Fragrance  of  the  Artemisia  Alpina — Psychic  Influence  of 
Mountain  Air — Blue  Skies  vs.  Blue  Glass — Chances  for  a 
Swiss  Colony— Edible  Acorns— Colossal  Fir-Trees—Squirrel- 
Monkeys— Connecting  Link  between  the  Rodents  and  Quad- 
rumana— Facts  for  Darwin— La  Zapateria — Cerberus — Pre- 
datory Monkeys  —  Monkey-Hounds— The  Wages  of  Sin  — 
Vicarious  Atonement — The  Pantaneros— A  Musical  Escort — 
The  Austrian  Sergeant— An  Eventful  Career— In  Sight  of 
Port  Isabel— Transparent  Atmosphere— Optic  Illusion— The 
Sun  of  Mexico— An  International  Seaport  Town— Mexican 
Garrison- The  Harbor  of  Port  Isabel— Barra  del  Padre— On 
the  Wharf- Passengers  of  the  New  Orleans  Steamer— Sunset 
—The  Coast-Range— Sunlight  on  the  Sierra  de  San  Tomas— 
The  Last  Bell —Valedictory  —  The  Signal-Gun  — Adios  a 
^lexico 395 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


1.  View  on  the  Rio  Motagua     . 

2.  Puerto  de  Guaymas 

3.  "Boss  Davis" 

4.  Sonora  Indians 

5.  Ruins  of  Azatlan  . 

6.  The  Eanchero 

7.  Plateau  of  Encinal 

8.  Val  de  Canas 

9.  On  the  Road  to  San  Luis 

10.  Aguas  Calientes      . 

11.  "Tree-Alligator"  (Iguana) 

12.  On  the  Lerma  River      . 

13.  An  Indian  Rancho 

14.  Colima  Peasants     . 

15.  Lake  Chapala 

16.  The  Hog-Tapir       . 

17.  Chechemeca  Platanero  . 

18.  Chechemeca  Bowman     . 

19.  A  Negro  Polyglot 

20.  San  Bias 

21.  The  Tuxpano 

22.  Peak  of  Culiacan  . 

23.  Jose        .         ••         • 

24.  Hacienda  del  Monte 

25.  Temple  Euins  of  Mayapan 

26.  Mount  Orizaba 

27.  Slopes  of  the  Sierra  Madre 

28.  Crater  of  Orizaba  . 

29.  In  the  Pinal   •■",,; 

30.  Deserted  Mining-Works  on  the  h 

31.  Convent  of  San  Rafael  . 

32.  "Dolce  far  Niente" 

33.  Mount  Perote 

34.  Precipice  of  the  Rio  Blanco 

35.  El  Tigrero 


PAGE 

froiifispiece 
.       25 
27 
•   29 
.  ^'^ 
.       36 
42 
.   45 
.   55 
57 
.   59 
.   69 
72 


,io  Blanco 


76 

84 

91 
103 

105 

109 

114 

123 

128 

137 

140 

146 

153 

157 

159 

165 

171 

177 

,  185 

.  189 

.  191 

.  197 


19 


20 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

36.  La  Trampa 199 

37.  Yal  de  Perote  and  the  Old  Fort    . 

.     209 

38.  The  Foot-Race       .... 

.     212 

39.  Falls  of  the  Rio  Verde  . 

.     220 

40.  Jungles  of  the  Rio  Verde 

.     232 

41.  Cypress  of  Maria  del  Tule     . 

.     235 

42.  Indian  Falconer     .... 

.     241 

43.  Don  Carl's  Pets      .... 

.     244 

44.  Limestone  Caves  of  the  Sierra  Honda 

.     249 

45.  The  Wigwam  Swing     . 

.     253 

46.  The  Swamps  of  the  Sumasinta 

.     257 

47.  The  Raft  Faliica     .... 

.     258 

48.  Settling  Old  Scores 

.     272 

49.  Mission  of  San  Gabriel 

.     277 

50.  A  Pinto  Patriarch 

.     283 

51.  Skinning  a  Boa 

.     285 

52.  Carmen  Harbor 

.     288 

53.  "Sauve  Qui  Peut" 

.     297 

54.  Tabascano  Indians 

.     301 

55.  Lynching  a  Lunch-Fiend 

.     305 

56.  Reclaiming  an  Apostate 

.     307 

57.  Don  Pedro  Santo   .... 

.     308 

58.  Christmas  in  Yucatan    . 

.     311 

59.  The  Ruins  of  Sacrificios 

.     319 

60.  South  Wall  of  Casa  de  las  Monjas 

.     341 

61.  The  Palomal           .... 

.     343 

62.  The  Town-Crier     .... 

.     345 

63.  The  House  of  the  Dwarf 

.     347 

64.  The  Oldest  Inhabitant  .... 

.     352 

65.  A  Disappointed  Treasure-Hunter 

.     357 

66.  Obelisk  of  Uxmal           .... 

.     360 

67.  Excelsior 

.     368 

68.  Village  of  the  Casca  Indians 

.     371 

69.  In  the  Toils 

.     373 

70.  Love  after  Death 

.     379 

71.  An  Ant-Bear  at  Bay      .... 

.     387 

72.  The  Highlands  of  Vera  Paz  . 

.     400 

73.  Boa-Shooting 

.     403 

74.  A  Hunter's  Castle          .... 

.     409 

75.  Enfant  Perdu 

.     419 

76.  Port  Isabel     ,         .         .         . 

.     421 

SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


CHAPTER    I. 

SONORA. 

Mi  pays  y  los  montes  me  Ilaman, 

Los  montes  airosos  del  vSur. — Manuel  Villegas. 

Our  boat  had  left  Fort  Yuma  on  a  cold  October  morn- 
ing, and  a  little  before  sunset  we  entered  the  Gulf  of 
California.  Either  the  weather  had  moderated  during  the 
afternoon,  or  the  first  ten  hours  of  our  voyage  had  brought 
us  to  a  latitude  where  October  is  still  a  summer  month,  for 
some  of  my  fellow-passengers  appeared  on  deck  in  their 
shirt-sleeves,  and  even  the  Mexican  sailors  had  folded  their 
ponchos  into  pillows  and  slept  or  smoked  under  the  lee  of 
the  caboose. 

Before  the  twilight  disappeared  from  the  mountain-sum- 
mits of  the  Californian  peninsula  I  had  spread  my  couch 
on  the  pilot-deck,  and  tried  to  remember  what  omens  a 
professional  augur  would  have  found  in  the  swarms  of  mi- 
gratory birds  that  accompanied  our  vessel  on  her  way  to  the 
South,  when  the  evening  stillness  was  broken  by  that  ingen- 
ious instrument  whose  sound  combines  the  harmonies  of  a 
fog-horn  and  a  steam  slate-factory — a  genuine  Chinese  gong. 

"  Those  things  will  be  safe  enough  up  here,"  I  told 
the  cabin-boy,  who  had  just  brought  my  overcoat  ^nd  a 

2  21 


22  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

travelling  cushion :  "  I  shall  be  back  in  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes." 

The  passenger-list  of  the  Gila  City  included  some  char- 
acteristic specimens  of  an  ethnological  class  who,  in  reference 
to  their  behavior,  can  hardly  be  described  as  Pacific  Amer- 
icans. There  were  two  excited  Sacramento  politicians,  hot 
from  a  ratification-meeting;  a  troop  of  miners,  on  their 
way  to  the  Sonora  diggings,  wbo  swore  that  they  were 
"flush  enough  to  afford  it/'  and  threatened  to  treat  all 
round ;  there  was  a  commercial  traveller,  who  insisted  on 
talking  ungrammatical  Spanish ;  and  a  little  lawyer  from 
San  Bernardino  County,  whose  anecdotes  would  have  been 
interesting  contributions  to  the  border  chronicle  of  Southern 
California  if  he  had  been  sober;  and  when  a  deep-mouthed 
butcher  from  Los  Angeles  became  vocal  under  the  influence 
of  the  viTio  de  mezcal,  I  stole  away  to  my  cabin,  got  a  couple 
of  blankets,  and  returned  to  my  freehold  on  the  pilot-deck. 
I  wanted  to  enjoy  the  luxuries  of  silence,  especially  a  feeling 
of  growing  exultation  which  my  spirit  somehow  evolved 
from  the  consciousness  that  every  hour  brought  me  ten  or 
twelve  miles  nearer  to  a  land  of  perennial  summer.  Are 
there  any  germs  or  remnants  of  the  bird-of-passage  instinct 
in  the  human  soul  ?  I  think  the  phenomenon  admits  of  a 
different  explanation. 

This  earth  of  ours  is  at  present  ruled  by  a  race  of  valiant 
Northmen,  and  some  fur-clad  philosophers  have  assured  us 
that  not  only  valor,  but  civilization  and  science,  as  well  as 
virtue — and  consequently  happiness — are  plants  which  can 
only  thrive  in  the  snow.  It  would  be  more  correct  to  say 
that  science  and  civilization,  which  flourished  in  open  air 
during  the  golden  age  of  the  Mediterranean  nations,  have 
become  hot-house  plants  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
ripening  of  their  fruits  still  depends  upon  a  certain  amount 


SONORA.  23 

of  caloric,  only  with  this  difference, — that  the  maturative 
warmth  which  once  emanated  from  the  central  body  of  the 
solar  system  has  now  to  be  paid  for  in  the  form  of  sea-coal 
and  kindling-wood.  But  happiness,  and  that  physical  be- 
atitude of  which  health  is  only  the  principal  condition, 
have  never  prospered  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  conserva- 
tory. Sunlight  cannot  be  entirely  superseded  by  coal-gas. 
In  the  intervals  of  our  noisy  ISTorthern  factory-life  there 
are  moments  when  echoes  from  the  land  of  our  forefathers 
become  audible  in  the  human  soul ;  and  I  think  that  at  such 
times  many  of  my  European  and  North  American  fellow- 
men  become  conscious  of  a  feeling  which  I  might  describe 
as  a  Southern  homesickness.  For  man  is  a  native  of  the 
tropics,  and,  like  the  shell  that  still  murmurs  its  dreams  of 
the  sea,  the  spirit  of  the  exiled  human  race  has  never  ceased 
to  yearn  for  our  lost  garden-home  in  the  South.  In  his 
essay  on  the  hereditary  instincts  of  the  human  animal,  Her- 
bert Spencer  remarks  that  the  strange  charm  of  what  we  call 
a  romantic  landscape — i.e.,  a  wild  chaos  of  rocks  and  forests, 
the  more  savage  the  better — probably  dates  from  a  time 
when  that  emotion  had  a  practical  significance  and  filled 
the  souls  of  our  woodcrafty  ancestors  with  visions  of  hidden 
game  and  a  successful  chase.  In  a  similar  way,  our  Para- 
dise traditions,  the  myth  of  the  Elysian  Gardens,  the  ever- 
green meadows  of  the  Talmud,  as  also  the  Northern  saga 
of  a  land  without  winter  sorrows,  have  probably  been 
transmitted  from  a  time  when  all  mankind  enjoyed  such 
privileges  of  the  blest  on  this  side  of  the  grave.  We  may 
never  know  if  the  cradle  of  our  primogenitor  stood  on  the 
banks  of  the  Indus  or  in  Southern  Armenia,  or,  as  Mauper- 
tuis  tells  us,  in  the  mountain-gardens  of  Arabia  Felix ;  but 
all  historical  and  mythological  indications  point  to  the  South, 
as  well  as  all  tenable  theories  a  priori.     What  imagination 


24  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

could  locate  the  Garden  of  Eden  in  a  Kussian  peat-bog  or 
in  a  Manitoba  beaver-swamp?  Neither  Adam  and  Eve 
nor  Darwin's  four-handed  ancestor  could  have  survived  a 
Canadian  winter,  and  even  the  Saturnian  age  of  the  first 
agricultural  nations  could  hardly  be  reconciled  with  the 
climate  of  Old  or  New  England.  With  all  the  calorific 
artifices  which  the  experience  of  the  last  hundred  gener- 
ations has  transmitted  to  our  century,  with  well-warmed 
workhouses  and  hospitals  for  consumptives,  the  burghers  of 
Manchester  and  Boston  may  manage  to  counteract  the  worst 
effects  of  a  low  temperature,  but  the  nations  who  "  celebrated 
life  as  a  festival"  have  inhabited  a  different  latitude. 

"  Los  monies  airosos  del  /Swr" — "  the  airy  mountains  of 
the  South" — imparted  the  same  charm  to  the  crusades  of 
the  Knights  Templar  as  to  those  of  the  Conquistadores ; 
the  migration  of  the  wild  Asiatic  hordes  carried  them  to 
the  Southwest ;  the  New  England  tourist  departs  for  the 
Southeast ;  and  the  Italian  hegiras  of  the  British  poets,  the 
chateaux  d'Fspagne  of  the  French  romancers,  and  the  old 
lament  of  the  children  of  Israel  for  their  lost  Promised 
Land,  are  not  inspired  by  a  predilection  for  any  special 
country,  as  nuich  as  by  an  undefined  Southern  homesick- 
ness. "Every  mile  toward  the  noonday  sun,"  says  the 
returning  exile  in  the  Ifega  Dhuta,  "  brings  us  nearer  to 
the  home  of  our  fathers,  the  land  of  sweet  tree-fruits  and 
everlasting  summer." 

The  cabin  of  the  Gila  City  was  much  infested  with 
cockroaches  and  cocktail  odors,  and  the  pilot-deck  was  too 
damp  to  be  altogether  lovely;  but  I  remembered  that 
every  revolution  of  the  paddle-wheels  diminished  the  de- 
gree of  Northern  latitude,  and  the  starry  hours  have  not 
often  brought  me  happier  dreams  than  those  in  that  Octo- 
ber night  on  the  Gulf  of  California. 


SONORA. 


25 


The  sea-coast  of  Sonora,  with  its  rocky  promontories, 
abounds  in  coves  and  natural  breakwaters  where  the  feluccas 
of  the  Mexican  fishermen  may  find  shelter  in  any  kind  of 
weather.  The  unrivalled  seaport  of  Acapulco  alone  ex- 
cepted, the  mouth  of  the  Rio  del  Toro,  near  Guaymas,  is 


probably  the  finest  harbor  of 
the  Northern  Pacific,  but  the 
trade  of  the  mountainous 
province  is  nearly  monopo- 
lized by  an  inland  market, 
and  the  little  seaport-town  has  not  much  improved  since 
the  Spaniards  fortified  the  Boca  del  Rio  in  1685.  There 
are  only  three  posadas  or  hostelries  where  the  traveller  can 
find  lodging  as  well  as  food,  and  I  had  no  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  the  rendezvous  of  the  Morgan  teamsters. 

The  "  Morgan  Trade  and  Transport  Comi)any"  of  San 
Francisco  sends  a  monthly  caravan  of  "  prairie-schooners" 
from  Guaymas  to  San  Luis  Potosi,  and  their  east-bound 
freight  is  generally  landed  six  days  in  advance  of  its  de- 
parture from  the  sea-coast.     As  the  captain  of  the  Gila 


26  SUMMEBLAND  SKETCHES. 

City  informed  me  that  his  boat  had  delivered  the  last 
cargo  a  week  ago,  I  lost  no  time  in  making  my  way  to  the 
caravansary.  Several  mules,  ready  harnessed  and  saddled, 
were  hitched  to  the  gate  of  the  corral,  and  the  bustle  and 
hubbub  in  the  wagon-shed  admonished  me  to  prepare  for 
immediate  marching  orders. 

"  How  are  you,  senor  ?"  the  company's  little  clerk  hailed 
me  from  one  of  the  tent- wagons.  "  You  are  our  passenger 
for  San  Luis,  are  you  not  ?  Can  you  tell  me  if  there  is 
any  mail  for  us  on  the  Gila?" 

"  The  mail-boy  was  inquiring  for  you  at  the  hotel,"  I 
replied.  "How's  Boss  Davis,  the  wagonmaster?  He's 
nearly  done  loading,  it  seems  ?" 

"  He's  not  done  swearing  yet,"  said  the  youngster  :  "  I 
think  I  hear  him  back  there  in  that  second  shed.  He  in- 
quired for  you  at  different  times." 

"Glad  to  see  you,  doctor  !"  cried  the  "  Boss,"  jumping 
to  terra  firma  from  a  pile  of  swaying  dry-goods  boxes.  "  I 
was  just  going  to  send  for  a  good  interpreter :  it  takes  a 
dozen  curses  of  sixteen  syllables  apiece  to  start  a  Mexican 
nuileteer,  and  I  was  near  the  end  of  my  vocabulary.  Let 
me  get  the  axle-grease  off  my  fingers  before  we  shake 
hands.  You  are  just  in  time  :  I  am  going  to  fix  you  a  seat 
in  my  own  wagon,  unless  you  prefer  otherwise.  There  will 
be  plenty  of  room.  Do  you  know  that  old  Fatty  Heninger 
left  us  last  mouth  ?" 

"  I  thought  so.  It  seems  you've  got  a  brand-new  clerk 
since  I  saw  you  at  headquarters  ?" 

"  Yes,  quite  a  boy :  he  can  ride  in  my  lunch-basket  or 
anywhere.     But  did  you  let  him  weigh  your  baggage?" 

"No:  my  things  are  at  the  posada.  Shall  I  get  them 
right  now  ?" 

"You  will  be  left  if  you  don't,"  said  the  Boss:    "we 


so  NORA. 


27 


shall  start  in  half  an  hour.     I  want  to  get  across  the  Vega 
before  night." 


"  BOSS   DAVIS. 


The  terrace-land  of  Western  Sonora  is  divided  by  a  ram- 
part of  steep  hills  into  two  well-defined  regions, — the  Vega, 
or  coast-plain  proper,  a  marshy  jungle  diversified  with  open 
lagoons  and  occasional  banana-plantations;  and  the  En- 


28  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

cinal  (literally  "  Oakland"),  the  park-like  plateau  that  ex- 
tends beyond  the  southern  border  of  Sinaloa  and  rises  in 
the  east  toward  the  foot-hills  of  the  Sierra  Madre.  There 
liad  been  no  heavy  rains  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  and  the 
ground  was  so  dry  that  we  managed  to  pull  through  twenty 
miles  of  bottom-land  in  less  than  eight  hours^  and  sighted 
the  Yaqui  River  a  good  Avhile  before  sunset.  We  entered 
the  ford  in  single  file,  and  in  spite  of  the  colossal  blasphe- 
mies uttered  in  transitu  our  teamsters  reached  the  opj)osite 
bank  in  good  order,  and  wheeled  in  succession  to  the  right 
into  their  first  camp,  an  open  live-oak  grove  at  the  river- 
side, where  each  earretero  was  permitted  to  pick  his  own 
camping-ground  within  a  very  liberal  circuit ;  we  were  still 
in  the  tierra  mansa,  the  country  of  the  tame  Indians,  where 
horse-thieves  and  begging  friars  were  the  worst  visitors  we 
had  to  fear. 

Our  rank  and  file  consisted  of  the  Boss,  his  clerk,  two 
American  teamsters,  the  cook,  an  old  mestizo  of  all  work, 
and  five  Mexican  carreteros,  or  brevet  teamsters,  as  one  of 
the  Americans,  an  ex-sergeant  of  the  United  States  cavalry, 
called  them.  I  was  the  only  passenger,  but  Don  Jos6  Bar- 
reto,  a  coffee-planter  of  the  neighboring  Vega,  had  accom- 
panied us  from  Guaymas,  and  accepted  an  invitation  to 
supper. 

Before  he  left  he  shook  my  hand  with  all  the  unreserved 
cordiality  of  a  North  Carolina  country  squire.  "  To  re- 
quite your  kindness,  I  will  give  you  a  bit  of  advice,  senor," 
said  he  in  a  rapid  patois  which  he  knew  to  be  Greek  to  the 
Boss.  "  Do  you  know  what  makes  your  American  team- 
sters so  inferior  to  our  old  Mexicans  on  the  march?  It 
isn't  want  of  practice,  for  some  of  them  have  been  at  it  all 
their  lives,  and  their  physique  is  all  that  could  be  desired. 
The  matter  is  this,— they  eat  too  much :  I  mean  they  eat 


SONOBA. 


29 


SONORA    INDIANS. 


too  many  meals.  A  Mexican  teamster  takes  a  big  meal  in 
the  evening  after  going  into  camp,  but  be  hardly  eats  any 
breakfast  at  all.  The  habit  could  be  formed  dnring  a  single 
trip,  and  the  advantages  would  be  lifelong ;  for  such  meals 
as  I  saw  your  countrymen  swallow  at  the  posada  this  morn- 
ing are  sure  to  make  the  stoutest  man  torpid  for  the  next 
five  or  six  hours,  no  matter  how  many  drams  he  puts  down 
to  stimulate  digestion.  A  carretero  hardly  drinks  a  drop 
of  water  all  day  long :  a  Yankee  teamster  pumps  himself 
full  whenever  he  gets  a  chance.  It's  not  the  heat  of  the 
sun  that  makes  him  thirsty,  but  the  inward  heat,  the  stack 
of  beefsteaks  under  his  belly-band." 

Paso  del  Cabo  ("  the  Chieftain's  Ford")  the  natives  call 
the  place  where  we  crossed  the  river,  and  the  origin  of  the 
name  is  explained  by  an  old  tradition  of  the  Sonora  In- 
dians. When  the  Spanish  conquistador  Valdez  established 
himself  at  Guaymas,  his  freebooters  used  to  go  adventuring, 
singly  or  in  troops,  into  the  interior  of  the  country,  but  they 
could  rarely  extend  their  forays  beyond  the  Rio  Yaqui,  a 
deep  and  rapid  river  that  runs  parallel  to  the  coast  for  a 
good  many  leagues,  while  on  account  of  the  shoals  near  the 


30  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

boca  none  of  tlieir  heavy  boats  could  ascend  from  below. 
They  had  reason  to  suspect  that  there  was  a  good  ford  some- 
where near  Guaymas,  but  the  Indians  of  the  neighborhood 
refused  to  specify  the  locality,  and  finally  confessed  that  El 
Cabo,  a  powerful  chieftain  on  the  other  side  of  the  river, 
had  threatened  and  sworn  that  if  any  man  should  dare  to  di- 
vulge the  secret  he  would  cut  his  throat  and  throw  his  body 
into  the  Yaqui  River.  The  Spaniards  did  not  like  to  meet 
the  cabo  on  his  own  ground,  but  during  a  dark  night  of  the 
rainy  season  they  surprised  a  village  on  the  north  side  of 
the  river  which  the  chieftain  honored  with  his  occasional 
visits,  and  were  lucky  enough  to  capture  his  son,  a  youth  of 
eighteen  or  twenty  years.  The  prisoner  was  arraigned  and 
questioned  in  regard  to  that  ford,  but  he  pleaded  ignorance, 
and  M^as  sent  back  to  jail  with  the  hint  that  they  would 
permit  him  to  cross  the  river  at  any  time  if  he  would  just 
be  kind  enough  to  find  that  shallow  place. 

About  that  time,  or  a  week  after,  a  Spanish  hunter  biv- 
ouacked on  the  bank  of  the  Rio  Yaqui  at  a  place  where 
certain  indications  let  him  hope  that  deer  would  come  to 
drink  after  dark.  He  fell  asleep,  but  after  midnight  he 
was  waked  by  a  loud  splash  in  the  river  a  little  farther  up, 
and,  hurrying  to  the  spot,  just  caught  a  glimpse  of  a  human 
figure  disappearing  in  the  bush.  The  bright  moonlight 
enabled  him  to  see  that  there  were  wet  footprints  in  the 
sand,  as  if  the  nocturnal  traveller  had  emerged  from  the 
river.  He  could  hardly  trust  his  eyes,  for  the  current  was 
strong  and  swift  at  that  place,  but  when  he  met  a  troop  of 
horsemen  the  next  morning,  and  was  informed  that  Cabo 
junior  had  effected  his  escape  during  the  night,  he  told  his 
tale  and  conducted  them  to  a  spot  which  he  could  identify 
by  those  footprints,  and  where,  with  the  aid  of  a  sounding- 
pole,  they  found  the  long-sought-for  Paso  del  Cabo,  the 


SONORA.  31 

only  ford  of  the  lower  Yaqui  River.  The  rapidity  of  the 
current  at  the  ford  makes  the  water  turbid,  and  thus  con- 
ceals its  want  of  depth.  But  the  story  of  the  Cabo  has  a 
disagreeable  sequel :  the  truculent  old  chief  ascertained  the 
circumstances  of  the  discovery,  and  a  few  days  after  the 
Spaniards  found  the  jugulated  body  of  their  ex-prisoner  in 
a  pile  of  driftwood  near  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

When  w^e  crossed  the  foot-hills  of  the  Encinal  on  the 
following  morning  I  stopped  repeatedly  to  take  a  look  nt 
the  northern  horizon,  where  the  Gila  Desert  spread  its  sand- 
waves  over  an  apparently  boundless  exj)anse  of  fallow  plains. 
El  Pays  de  la  Muerte  ("  the  Land  of  Death")  the  Spaniards 
called  this  region ;  and  the  name  is  certainly  appropriate. 
If  Northern  Africa  can  boast  of  any  worse  desert,  the  fiercer 
heat  may  justify  the  claim,  but  the  most  desolate  portions 
of  the  Central  Sahara  can  certainly  not  surpass  the  barren- 
ness of  the  Death-Land.  The  morning  air  of  that  October 
day  was  so  clear  that  I  could  distinguish  the  rocks  and  ra- 
vines of  a  group  of  hills  in  the  distant  northeast,  and  even 
the  bluish-green  shimmer  of  the  cactus-hedges  on  the  table- 
land beyond,  but,  turning  my  eyes  to  the  north,  I  could  not 
discover  the  faintest  trace  of  vegetation,  though  the  view 
was  only  bounded  by  the  outline  of  an  airy  mountain-range 
at  the  edge  of  tlie  horizon. 

The  Gila  Desert  extends,  in  fact,  from  the  Rio  Yaqui  to 
the  foot-hills  of  the  Sierra  de  Pinos  in  Southern  Arizon:i, 
and  its  eastern  spurs  form  an  almost  continuous  chain  of 
sand-hills  to  the  valley  of  the  Concho  River,  where  the 
American  Timbuktoo,  the  city  of  Chihuahua,*  with  her 
gardens  and  orange-groves,  lies  like  an  oasis  between  two 
dreary  table-lands. 

*  Pronounced  in  three  syllables,  almost  like  Chee-wfi'wii. 


32  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Professor  Buckland  asserts  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
an  original  desert  on  earth :  the  destruction  of  forests,  he 
says,  has  converted  the  garden-spots  of  the  northern  hemi- 
sphere into  sand-wastes ;  and  his  view  is  certainly  supported 
by  the  remarkable  circumstance  that  the  most  treeless  re- 
gions of  four  continents  are  found  on  the  sides  turned  tomard 
Asia, —  Southeastern  Europe,  Northern  Africa,  Western 
America,  and  Northwestern  Australia, — where  the  early 
advent  of  man  may  be  inferred  from  the  proximity  of  the 
common  cradle  of  the  human  race.  That  deserts  do  not 
spread — i.e.,  blight  the  vegetation  of  adjacent  districts — 
seems  proved  by  the  fertility  of  regions  which  are  not  only 
bordered,  but  almost  surrounded,  by  the  most  ho23eless  sand- 
wastes.  In  Eastern  Persia  forests  alternate  with  alkali- 
steppes;  in  Fez  and  Algiers  gardens  bloom  on  the  very 
edge  of  the  Sahara ;  and  the  Encinal,  at  the  border  of  the 
Death-Land,  teems  with  vegetable  and  animal  life,  though 
it  is  a  wilderness  indeed  if  only  tillage  can  redeem  a  country 
from  that  stigma.  Its  human  population  is  exclusively  pas- 
toral, and  I  do  not  think  that  the  vast  plateau  that  stretches 
from  Guaymas  to  Southern  Sinaloa  has  ever  been  touched 
by  a  plough ;  but  its  spontaneous  flora  comprises  nearly  all 
the  species  of  the  subtropical  zone,  and,  seeing  the  multitude 
and  variety  of  game  which  our  dogs  started  during  the  next 
forty-eight  hours,  I  could  credit  Xenophon's  account  of  a 
Thessalian  chase.  Pheasants,  prairie-chickens,  and  rock- 
partridges  whirred  up  whenever  we  approached  a  mimosa- 
thicket,  and  the  crack  of  a  whip  or  the  vociferous  profanity 
of  a  Mexican  teamster  started  the  rabbits  across  the  hill- 
country  in  every  direction.  Black-tail  deer,  chaparral- 
bucks,  and  turkeys  were  seen  at  longer  intervals,  and  at 
night  the  yelping  of  the  hill-foxes  and  the  occasional  scream 
of  a  wild-cat  proved  that  the  rocks  and  ravines  were  not 


so  NORA. 


33 


altogether  tenantless.  What  zoological  gardens  such  regions 
must  have  been  in  the  good  old  time  of  animal  liberty  and 
equality,  before  the  power  of  tlie  scientific  biped  became  too 
irresistible ! 


RUINS    OF   AZATLAN. 


Sunset  found  us  still  on  the  road,  and  the  oriyas,  a  species 
of  whippoorwill,  were  repeating  their  watch-song  in  the 
mezquite-thickets  when  we  reached  the  ruins  of  Azatlan, 
near  an  old  rock-well  that  has  never  been  known  to  fail  in 


34  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

the  dryest  seasons.  The  night  was  calm  and  warm,  and 
after  a  glance  at  the  cloudless  sky  the  Boss  pitched  his  tent 
under  a  leafy  walnut-tree  near  the  well,  while  the  teamsters 
took  camp  in  one  of  the  deserted  buildings,  whose  stately 
dimensions  and  well-j)reserved  roof  have  earned  it  the 
name  of  tiie  Cana  del  Oura,  "  the  parsonage."  The  Span- 
iards, who  destroyed  many  cities  and  nearly  all  the  temples 
of  the  old  Aztecs,  are  not  responsible  for  the  ruins  of  Aza- 
tlan  ;  the  four  casas,  with  their  sculptured  walls  and  broken 
colonnades,  are  relics  of  that  problematic  nation  which  in- 
habited, and  perhaps  desolated,  the  western  table-lands  of 
our  continent,  and  disappeared  before  the  earliest  dawn  of 
aboriginal  tradition.  The  origin  of  the  Casas  Grandes  on 
the  Gila  River  and  the  ruins  of  Northwestern  Mexico  is  as 
obscure  as  the  significance  of  the  Sphinx  and  the  purpose 
of  the  Pyramids. 

Soon  after  midnight  the  dogs  in  the  casa  began  to  bark, 
and,  peeping  from  under  the  folds  of  my  blanket,  I  noticed 
that  the  little  clerk  was  getting  uneasy  about  the  noise. 
He  raised  his  head  and  was  looking  wistfully,  first  at  the 
Boss  and  then  at  me,  and  finally  stretched  out  his  hand  in 
a  diffident  way,  but  drew  it  back,  as  if  unwilling  to  incur 
further  responsibilities.  I  lay  motionless,  waiting  for  the 
second  act  of  the  dumb  show,  but  the  barking  became 
furious,  and  when  our  big  greyhound  joined  in  the  chorus, 
I  jumped  up  and  walked  over  to  the  casa. 

One  of  the  American  teamsters  met  me  at  the  gateway. 
"  I  can't  keep  them  quiet,  sir,"  said  he.  "  I  was  just  going 
to  take  a  look  at  the  courtyard,  or  what  d'ye  call  it,  back 
there:  I  think  there  must  be  cats  or  thieves  somewhere 
round  here." 

We  went  to  the  north  side  of  the  casas  and  walked  over 
a  heap  of  debris  and  through  a  dilapidated  building,  but 


SONORA.  35 

wlien  we  stepped  out  on  tlie  moonlit  terrace  at  the  opposite 
end,  two  light-footed  animals  leaped  over  the  broken  stones, 
whisked  noiselessly  across  an  open  field,  and  disappeared 
like  shadows  in  the  night-mist. 

"  Coyotes  :  I  thought  so,"  said  the  teamster.  "  I  hope 
they  won't  come  back.  We  had  a  late  supper  last  night, 
and  those  long-legged  thieves  had  smelled  the  bacon,  I 
guess.  I  had  a  good  mind  to  let  the  dogs  loose,  but  it 
won't  do ;  we  have  to  keep  them  tied  up,  or  they  would 
hang  around  the  mules  and  get  kicked  to  death." 

"What  was  it?  robbers?"  whispered  my  little  bed- 
fellow, who  had  picked  up  a  pistol  and  followed  us  from 
a  distance. 

"  Yes,  sir — six  of  'cm,"  said  the  teamster ;  "  but  they 
galloped  away  like  race-horses  when  they  saw  you  cock 
that  six-shooter," 

Ten  miles  south  of  Azatlan  we  crossed  the  Rio  Mayo, 
ascended  a  steep  ridge  on  the  opposite  shore,  and  found 
ourselves  on  the  table-land  of  Sinaloa,  the  southern  and 
grander  portion  of  the  Encinal.  The  rolling  hill-country 
swells  here  into  mountains  and  valleys,  and  the  chaparral 
alternates  with  stately  and  extensive  forests, — cork-oak 
forests,  some  of  them,  and  open  chestnut  woods  that  form 
an  agreeable  contrast  to  the  impenetrable  tanglewood  of  the 
Vega.  Our  cook  had  been  still-hunting  in  the  chaparral 
while  the  train  crept  up  the  ridge,  and  said  that  he  had 
seen  buffaloes  from  the  summit  of  a  grassy  knob, — a  state- 
ment which  jeopardized  his  reputation  for  veracity ;  but 
our  doubts  were  removed  by  an  argumentum  ad  hominem 
before  noon.  On  approaching  a  grove  of  hackberry -trees 
on  the  bank  of  a  little  mountain-creek  whose  windings  the 
road  had  followed  for  some  time,  our  greyhound  gave 
tongue,  and  was  answered  by  a  quartet  of  strange  dog- voices 


36 


SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


much  deeper  and  louder  than  his  own  that  the  foremost 
team  came  to  a  full  stop,  when  a  broad-shouldered  ranchero 


so 


THE   KANCHEKO. 


stepped  from  the  grove  with  a  merry  halloo,  and  bade  us 
"  Advance  and  draw  our  meat-rations,  and  bring  all  our 
friends  along." 

There  was,  indeed,  meat  enough  to  ration  a  cavalry  regi- 


SONORA.  37 

raent  with  numerous  veterinary  surgeons  and  attached 
officers  with  their  respective  families.  On  the  shady  side 
of  the  liack berry-trees  a  party  of  hunters  liad  hitched  their 
horses  and  relieved  them  of  their  burden, — five  full  horse- 
loads  of  fresh  buffido-nieat,  including  a  bagful  of  livers  'and 
kidneys  and  a  ponderous  string  of  tongues.  They  told  us 
that,  without  firing  a  shot,  they  had  bagged  six  bulls  and 
four  calves  with  the  aid  of  their  Aragon  shepherd  dogs, 
gaunt,  shaggy,  and  long-legged  brutes,  that  stood  around 
the  beef  in  a  semicircle,  and  leered  at  us  as  if  calculating 
the  amount  of  meat  our  rump-steaks  and  livers  would  add 
to  the  pile. 

The  Aragon  hound  exceeds  the  mastiff  in  .size,  and  the 
greyhound  in  strength  though  not  in  swiftness,  and  resem- 
bles nothing  so  much  as  an  overgrown,  long-headed,  and 
hirsute  wolf.  On  account  of  his  ferocity  he  is  seldom  em- 
ployed as  a  M^atch-dog,  but  his  strength  and  his  reckless 
courage  make  him  a  useful  domestic  beast  of  prey.  He  will 
rend  a  mountain-goat  as  a  terrier  would  kill  a  rat,  and  two 
or  three  of  them  will  keep  a  buffalo  at  bay  till  the  hunter  can 
despatch  him  with  a  lance  or  even  with  a  long  knife,  for  a 
trained  Aragon  flies  at  the  throat  of  the  strongest  bull  and 
disables  him  in  spite  of  his  heavy  dewlap  and  matted  mane. 

The  Boss  declined  the  offer  with  thanks,  but  the  ranchero 
would  not  be  fobbed  off,  and  every  one  of  our  teamsters 
had  to  stuff  his  mess-chest  with  gratuitous  beef. 

"  How  did  you  like  the  looks  of  those  '  shepherd-dogs'  ?" 
asked  the  Boss  when  we  had  resumed  our  march. 

"  Sheep-stealing  must  be  a  risky  trade  in  these  parts,"  1 

replied ;  "  but,  now  you  remind  me  of  it,  I  am  sorry  I  did 

not  ask  them  for  a  pup  of  that  breed.     In  some  of  our 

buffalo  territories  such  a  hunting-wolf  would  be  worth  his 

weight  in  silver." 

3 


38  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

"  Yes,  in  .a  country  where  beef  is  cheaper  than  powder, 
but  where  you  liave  to  pay  a  butcher's  bill  they  would  be 
expensive  pets;  one  of  them  eats  as  much  as  three  hard- 
working blacksmiths.  They  earn  their  rations,  no  doubt ; 
butj  to  say  the  truth,  I  would  not  give  my  greyhound  for 
a  dozen  of  them.  A  good  venison  steak  is  worth  all  the 
bull-beef  in  creation  ;  and  I  should  like  to  see  one  of  those 
lubbers  try  to  catch  a  chaparral-buck  or  a  cotton-tail  deer. 
You  will  see  Nepo  (the  greyhound)  do  it  before  night,  if 
I  am  not  much  mistaken." 

Another  steep  up-grade,  and  we  kept  along  the  level 
ridge  of  a  long-stretched  mountain  that  afforded  a  fine  view 
of  the  park-like  valleys  below. 

"  Say,  Boss,  here's  a  chance  for  your  galgoi'''  (hound),  said 
the  cook,  who  had  overheard  our  last  conversation.  "You 
see  that  mezquite-coppice  on  the  slope  down  there  ?  Those 
black  things  a  little  to  the  left  of  it  are  cobras  (antelopes), 
or  I'm  a  blind-worm." 

The  Boss  stopped  his  team.  "  Say,  sergeant !"  he  hailed 
one  of  his  American  teamsters;  "come  here  a  minute,  will 
you?  I  know  you  have  eyes  like  a  chicken-hawk :  can  you 
make  out  if  those  are  antelopes,  those  black  things  near 
the  mezquites  down  there  ?  I  should  like  to  give  Nepo  a 
chance,  but  it's  too  far  to  go  there  on  a  wild-goose  chase." 

"  Yes,  I  see  them,"  said  the  sergeant ;  "  they  are  cabras, 
— genuine  pronghorn  antelopes, — but  it  would  be  a  wild- 
goose  chase  for  all  that.  There's  too  much  cover  here :  a 
greyhound  can't  follow  them  through  the  bush,  you  know. 
There's  timber  all  around,  and  Nepo  couldn't  begin  to 
overtake  them  before  they  got  across  that  open  prairie." 

"He  couldn't,  eh?"  said  the  cook.  "That's  all  you 
know  about  it.  I  tell  you  they  are  lost  if  you  get  him 
half-way  down  before  they  start." 


so  NORA.  39 

"  What  do  you  bet  on  that  ?" 

"  I  bet  you  my  cuchillo  (dirk-knife)  against  a  ])hig  of 
tobacco  that  he  will  catch  a  cabra  within  ten  inir.utes  from 
the  word  go  /" 

"Much  obliged/'  laughed  the  sergeant;  "  niy  old  bull- 
sticker  is  getting  played  out.    Who's  going  to  steer  the  pup ?" 

"  I  leave  that  to  his  boss,"  said  the  cook,  "  but  I'm  going 
to  saddle  one  of  the  spare  mules  and  get  my  meat-bag 
ready." 

"  You  may  as  well  get  your  cuchillo  ready  too.  Shall  we 
stop  the  traiu  for  a  few  moments,  Mr.  Davis  ?" 

"  Well,"  said  the  Boss,  "  you  may  pull  slowly  ahead,  but 
don't  make  any  more  noise  than  you  can  help ;  it  wouldn't 
be  fair  play,  you  know.  Come  on,  doctor :  let  us  take  our 
guns  along,  anyhow." 

We  kept  the  galgo  in  leash  till  we  reached  the  lower  end 
of  a  bushy  ravine,  at  a  point  from  where  the  antelopes  were 
in  plain  view.  There  were  eight  of  them, — five  does  and 
three  bucks,  one  of  them  a  fat  old  fellow  with  the  grayish 
upper  neck  that  distinguishes  the  full-grown  specimens  of 
the  Antilope  americana, — all  browsing  quietly  and  evidently 
unconscious  of  any  danger,  though  two  of  the  old  does  foced 
the  ravine  and  seemed  to  look  directly  into  our  eyes  when- 
ever they  stretched  their  necks  for  digestive  purposes. 

"  Confound  the  dog!  he  hasn't  seen  them  yet,"  said  Mr. 
Davis  ;  "  but  it's  a  lost  game  if  we  go  any  nearer.  Just  hold 
his  head  a  moment." 

Nepo  had  understood  the  meaning  of  our  manoeuvres  for 
the  last  five  minutes,  and,  fully  conscious  of  being  the  cause 
of  the  perhaps  fatal  delay,  had  wrought  himself  into  a  stiite 
of  nervous  excitement;  but  after  straining  his  neck  and 
eyes  in  all  possible  directions,  he  still  turned  his  head  and 
looked  at  us  in  a  helpless  and  deprecatory  way. 


40  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"That's  it!  hokl  him  steady,"  whispered  the  Boss. 
"  That  will  do  now ;  he  has  seen  them — by  Dios  he  has  seen 
them !  Now  take  care !  keep  hold  of  him  till  I  get  that 
leash  off.  That's  it !  What  do  you  say  ?  shall  we  try  to  get 
a  little  nearer?  It  can't  do  any  harm  now.  Let  me  go 
ahead."  He  grabbed  the  hound  by  the  collar  and  walked, 
or  rather  crept,  toward  a  juniper-bush  some  twenty  yards 
farther  down;  and  still  the  cabras  browsed  in  profound 
peace.  He  reached  the  bush,  and  after  a  little  pause  crept 
around  it,  more  slowly  and  surreptitiously  than  before;  but 
he  had  not  advanced  the  length  of  his  own  body  when  two, 
three,  four  sibilant  snorts  from  the  coppice  gave  the  signal 
for  the  beginning  of  the  race.  One  of  the  does  led  off  with 
a  dashing  caper,  and  the  troop  wheeled  around  the  coppice 
and  went  down  the  slope  at  a  rattling  gallop. 

I  have  seen  English  race-horses  on  the  home-stretch  and 
a  wolf  in  full  pursuit  of  a  roe,  but  the  career  of  the  galgo 
reminded  me  more  of  the  rush  of  some  long-necked  water- 
fowl sweeping  down  a  river  with  that  impetus  that  sends  it 
flying  through  the  surface-water  for  ten  or  twelve  yards  if 
it  tries  to  alight.  With  his  head,  neck,  and  breast  stretched 
forward,  he  shot  ahead  in  a  direction  that  was  well  calcu- 
lated to  intercept  the  fugitives  if  they  should  try  to  take  to 
the  timber  on  this  side  of  the  lower  valley,  and  headed 
them  off  before  they  had  passed  the  bottom  of  the  ravine. 
They  turned  to  the  left  then,  now  fully  aware  that  they 
had  to  run  for  their  lives,  and  went  over  the  undulating 
hillocks  of  the  opposite  slope  at  a  rate  that  wouH  have 
defied  the  pursuit  of  the  best  rider  in  North  America. 
Hedges,  gullies,  and  rocks  they  cleared  with  flying  leaps 
which  only  a  kangaroo  could  emulate,  while  the  greyhound 
had  to  break  through  such  obstacles  or  get  around  them  the 
best  way  he  could. 


SONORA.  41 

There  was  an  extensive  forest  on  the  ridge  of  the  oppo- 
site slope,  and,  though  still  at  a  distance  of  half  a  league, 
the  chances  seemed  even  that  the  cabras  would  get  there  in 
time.  But  before  they  reached  it  they  had  to  cross  a  level 
plateau  where  neither  rocks  nor  bushes  gave  them  any  ad- 
vantage over  the  pursuer ;  and  here  the  race  for  life  began 
in  earnest.  The  antelopes  strained  every  nerve,  and  their 
flying  leaps  became  wilder  and  more  frequent,  but  the 
galgo's  chance  had  come.  No  intermittent  flying  could  save 
them  from  that  steady  rush,  and  just  when  the  foremost 
cabra  dashed  into  the  wood  the  trooj)  flew  asunder  like  a 
pile  of  pebbles  under  a  sudden  blow:  the  greyhound  was 
in  their  midst,  and  a  loud  hurrah  from  the  ridge  above  told 
us  what  we  could  not  see  from  our  lower  stand-point :  the 
cook  had  won  his  bet,  and  Nepo  was  throttling  an  antelope 
in  the  outskirts  of  the  forest,  which  she  had  reached  a  second 
too  late.  The  race  had  lasted  a  little  more  than  ten  minutes, 
but  the  plug  of  tobacco  was  duly  paid. 

When  we  returned  to  the  road  the  Boss  took  a  detour 
through  the  coppice-wood,  and  soon  after  I  heard  the  re|>ort 
of  his  shot-gun. 

"  Look  at  this  fellow !"  said  he,  when  he  rejoined  me  at 
the  train,  pulling  a  long-tailal  gallinaceous  bird  from  his 
hunting-pouch  :  "  do  you  know  any  English  name  for  this 
kind  of  chicken  ?" 

"  It  is  a  pheasant,  isn't  it?"  said  I,  after  a  glance  at  the 
long  neck  and  feathered  tarsi  of  the  nondescript. 

"  Looks  like  it,"  said  the  Boss,  "  but  a  phea-sant  can  fly, 
and  these  creatures  can't :  at  least,  I  never  saw  them  do  it. 
Chaparral-cocks,  we  call  them  in  Texas :  I  don't  know  the 
Latin  for  it,  but  if  tiiere  is  any  word  for  a  shy  bird,  that 
would  be  his  right  name.  Holy  smokes !  can't  they  run ! 
They  go  oif  like  a  flash  if  they  spy  a  human  being  in  the 


42 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


next  county.  I  tell  you,  where  you  can  get  one  of  these 
long- tails  within  shot-gun  range,  you  may  be  sure  that  you 
are  a  long  way  from  the  next  Methodist  Episcopal  church." 
The  chapai-ral-cock  (Phasianus  alector)  inhabits  the 
wooded  highlands  of  North  America  from  Arkansas  to 
Yucatan,  and  is  probably  the  shyest  bird  of  our  continent. 
He  can  fly,  but  is  so  sensible  of  his  deficiency  in  that  ac- 
complishment that  he  takes  to  his  heels  at  the  most  distant 
intimation  of  danger,  except  where  lifelong  peace  has  made 
him  careless.  The  sportsman  who  bags  his  first  chaparral- 
cock  may  sacrifice  it  to  iEsculapius :  he  can  be  sure  of 
having  escaped  from  the  malady  of  civilization  into  the 
healthiest  wilderness  of  our  old  planet. 


But  the  Encinal  is  a 
semi-tropical  wilderness. 
Wild  plums  (Chickasaw 
cherries,  they  call  them 
in  Texas)  and  mulberry- 
trees  abound  along   the 
water-courses,    and    the 
liill-forests  are  full  of  edible   nuts.     On  southern  slopes, 
even  on  the  higher  mountains,  we  found  wild  citron-trees, 
now  in  their  second  bloom,  and  diffusing  an  aromatic  at- 


SONORA.  43 

raosphere  that  swarmed  with  butterflies  and  huniining-binls. 
The  southern  Encinal  is  crossed  by  tlie  twenty-seventh  de- 
gree North, — the  parallel  of  Cashmeer  and  of  the  Bay  of 
San  Lucas  in  Florida,  where  De  Leon  landed  in  his  search 
for  the  Fountain  of  Eternal  Youth.  He  could  not  foresee 
the  extent  of  the  swamps  and  the  other  obstacles  that  barred 
his  way  to  the  west,  but  his  instinct  certainly  guided  him 
to  the  right  latitude,  if  freedom  from  such  cares  as  hunger 
and  frost  can  prolong  the  term  of  our  existence.  Tiie  wind 
Euroclydon  can  never  pass  the  northern  bulwark  of  the 
Encinal, — the  main  chain  of  the  Sierra  Madre,  that  stretches 
its  cloud-capt  ramparts  fi'om  the  head-waters  of  the  Rio 
Yaqui  to  Eastern  Duraugo  and  shelters  the  American  Italy 
against  the  ice-winds  that  sweep  from  Labrador  across  the 
territory  of  the  United  States. 

"  That  means  rain,"  said  the  Boss,  when  I  called  his  at- 
tention to  the  electric  twitches  in  a  big  bank  of  clouds  on 
the  eastern  horizon.  ''But  we  needn't  mind  if  it  does  not 
come  this  way  before  sunset,"  he  added.  "  Now  I  tliink  of 
it,  there  is  a  jolly  old  greaser  living  on  the  Cauas  River,  six 
miles  ahead,  and  if  you  have  any  preference  that  way  we 
might  as  well  sleep  under  a  good  roof  to-night." 

"Some  kind  of  a  country  inn,  is  it?" 

"  Not  exactly  :  it  is  a  stock-farm,  but  with  our  antelope 
and  the  bull-beef,  and  a  plug  or  two  of  tobacco,  we  arc  sure 
to  be  welcome." 

Hospitality  is  the  virtue  of  spai"sely-settled  countries, 
and  Don  Pancho  Garcia,  the  proprietor  of  tlie  Cauas  stock- 
farm,  received  us  with  that  hearty  aflflibility  which  mer(;en- 
ary  politeness  imitates  in  vain.  "  I  knew  there  were  stran- 
gers coming  this  way,"  said  he :  "  this  afternoon  I  hoard  a 
shot  on  the  Rio  Mountains  that  did  not  sound  to  me  like  a 
Mexican  shoo{ing-iron.     Well,  I'm  glad  you  found  the  old 


44  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

place,  capitano :  my  squaws  are  gone  to  a  wedding  at  Mr. 
Ichar's  place,  and  I  felt  kind  of  lonely  this  afternoon.  It's 
a  good  job  for  that  boy  of  yours"  (meaning  the  clerk)  "  that 
you  did  not  meet  them  on  the  road  :  they  would  have  lugged 
him  along  and  danced  him  to  death.  But  just  wait :  we 
are  going  to  have  a  war-dance  of  our  own  if  one  of  your 
men  will  help  me  to  get  the  cider-barrel  out." 

On  the  pavement  of  the  corral  a  fire  was  lighted  :  the 
galgo  and  we  Americans,  as  strangers  par  excellence,  got 
reserved  seats  on  the  veranda,  while  the  rest  of  the  bijjed 
and  quadruped  guests  formed  the  pit  in  the  background  of 
the  corral.  After  supper  a  guitar  and  a  keg  of  cider  (the 
Boss  had  vetoed  the  barrel)  completed  the  happiness  of  the 
gypsy  camp,  and  Senor  Garcia  invited  us  to  make  ourselves 
comfortable  on  the  piazza,  and  set  us  a  good  example  by 
throwing  himself  at  full  length  upon  a  pile  of  white  wool 
which  his  wife  had  probably  deposited  there  for  different 
purposes. 

"Mas  que  bien,  seiior,"  he  said  in  reply  to  a  compli- 
mentary remark  of  mine,  "but  I  am  afraid  you  would 
have  had  a  very  poor  supper  if  it  hadn't  been  for  your 
own  cook." 

"  The  cook  himself,"  I  replied,  "  prefers  truth  to  glory, 
and  says  that  your  corn-meal  is  superior  to  the  finest  North- 
ern quality.     Do  you  raise  much  corn  on  your  hacienda  ?" 

"  No,  thank  you,"  laughed  the  ranchero  :  "  I  get  it  from 
Trinidad,  with  the  rest  of  my  grub.  I  don't  believe  in 
farming." 

"  It  is  a  stock-farm,"  explained  the  Boss  :  "  stock-raising 
pays  better  hereabouts  than  any  kind  of  agriculture." 

"  Yes,  and  it's  less  trouble,"  said  the  Mexican.  "  How 
many  days'  work  do  you  think  it  would  take  a  man  to  raise 
a  full  crop  of  corn  ?     Sixty  or  seventy  at  the  very  least. 


SONORA. 


46 


wouldn't  it  ?  Now,  I  can  drive  my  cattle  to  market  and  be 
back  with  a  stack  of  provisions  in  less  than  sixty  hours. 
Besides,  I  can  get  my  work  in  on  hoi'seba(;k ;  and  that  is 
more  than  a  poor  planter  can  say."  The  sophistry  of  the 
unsophisticated  is  sometimes  hard  to  answer. 


VAL    DE    CAN  AS. 


The  Canas  Valley,  we  learned,  is  pretty  well  settled. 
There  used  to  be  a  colony  of  Confederate  refugees  twenty 
miles  farther  southeast — New  Texas  they  called  it — Avho 
lived  there  in  a  free-and-easy  way,  and  quite  comfortably, 
for  five  or  six  years;  but  when  times  got  sunnier  in  Dixie 
they  left  like  birds  of  passage,  and  their  pretty  cottages  are 
now  tenanted  by  Durango  Indians.  A  year  before  they  left 
a  pious  old  Scotchman  came  from  Los  Angeles  to  buy  land 
in  the  Canas  Valley,  and  established  a  mule-farm, — i.e.  a 
stud  for  breeding  and  breaking  mules, — which  lie  tried  to 
work  with  a  lot  of  imported  hands.  North   Californians 


46  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

most  of  them.  When  he  first  came  to  the  Canas  he  was  a 
most  dignified-looking  old  gentleman,  long-haired  like  a 
missionary,  and  remarkably  choice  in  his  language,  but 
when  Don  Pancho  saw  him  again,  some  nine  months  after, 
he  had  only  a  handful  of  hair  left,  and  the  profanity  of  his 
remarks  appalled  even  the  Mexican  experts.  As  soon  as 
his  Texas  neighbors  left  he  returned  to  California,  a  heavy 
loser  by  his  rash  experiment,  though  his  commonplace- 
book  had  been  enriched  with  two  aphorisms :  First,  that 
Mexican  mules  can  only  be  managed  by  Mexican  muleteers ; 
and,  second,  that  under  certain  circumstances  emphatic  lan- 
guage becomes  an  imperative  necessity. 

"Do  you  employ  any  travelling  horse-breakers  in  this 
part  of  the  State  ?"  asked  the  Boss. 

"  In  certain  cases  we  do,"  said  the  ranchero.  "  There  are 
some  brutes  that  defy  all  fair  means  of  bringing  them  to 
terms ;  but,  as  a  rule,  I  try  everything  else  first.  There 
are  plenty  of  monteros  in  this  country  who  can  break  any 
horse,  but  the  question  is  how  long  the  horse  will  survive 
the  operation.  There  is  no  word  too  ugly  for  the  sort  of 
tricks  which  some  of  them  use  in  that  business." 

"  They  make  a  trade-secret  of  their  methods,  I  suppose  ?" 
"  Yes :  nearly  every  one  of  them  has  a  system  of  his  own, 
and  they  often  manage  to  keep  it  secret  for  a  lifetime.  I 
knew  a  fellow  down  in  Sonora  who  had  a  recipe  for  curing 
runaway  horses,  and  he  had  a  monopoly  of  such  cures  for 
more  than  fifteen  years.  He  would  take  a  wild  broncho 
out  in  the  prairie,  and  bring  him  back  as  steady  as  a  pro- 
fessor,— nobody  knew  how  till  his  own  son  betrayed  the 
secret.  And  what  do  you  think  it  was  ?  He  had  contrived 
a  headgear  with  a  sort  of  copper  eye-flap  that  shut  down 
like  a  spring  and  blinded  the  creatures  completely.  He 
frightened  them  on  purpose,  and  as  soon  as  they  started  he 


SONORA.  47 

pulled  a  strap,  when  down  came  the  copper  like  a  clapboard, 
and  the  wildest  mustang  came  to  a  full  stop.  Then  he 
opened  the  lid,  reset  the  trap,  and  went  through  the  same 
manoeuvre  till  the  brutes  got  satisfied  that  daylight  depended 
on  their  behavior." 

"That  man  was  a  Yankee,  wasn't  he?" 

"  No,  seiior, — a  native,  homebred  Mexican ;  but  yon  are 
right  in  supposing  that  the  Americanos  of  the  North  are 
hard  to  beat  at  such  tricks.  You  know  that  our  young 
bucks  once  in  a  while  manage  to  lariat  a  buffalo, — -just  for 
fun,  of  course,  for  St.  Samson  himself  could  not  tame  an  old 
buffalo  bull, — but  a  Yankee  rancher  near  Mazatlan  showed 
us  that  you  can  make  them  behave  for  a  day,  anyhow. 
His  vaqueros  captured  a  monster  of  an  old  bull  and  dragged 
him  to  the  hacienda,  where  they  chained  him  to  a  tree,  but 
the  length  of  the  chain  just  showed  exactly  how  near  a  man 
could  come  to  that  tree  without  losing  his  life.  But  Don 
Yankee  was  too  much  for  him.  He  got  four  lariats  around 
him,  and  made  his  men  hold  him  steady  for  a  while,  and 
then  went  to  work  and  hitched  one  end  of  a  rawhide  strap 
to  his  tail,  and  the  other  to  his  horns,  and  then  tightened 
the  strap.  Now,  you  know  a  bull  cannot  gore  you  without 
lowering  his  head  first;  and  in  the  fix  he  was  this  one 
couldn't  nod  without  pulling  his  own  tail  out." 

Our  little  clerk,  whose  knowledge  of  Spanish  was  con- 
fined to  the  written  language,  had  fallen  asleep  on  the  hard 
boards  of  the  veranda ;  but  before  the  ranchero  retired  he 
put  an  armful  of  wool  under  his  head  and  covered  him  up 
with  a  knee-high  stratum  of  the  same  material. 

Toward  morning  the  long-expected  rain  began  with  :i 
chilly  gust,  but  without  any  of  the  electric  phenomena 
which  usually  accompany  a  transient  shower  in  the  tropics, 
and  after  a  short  council  of  war  we  anticipated  the  ranchero's 


48  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

permission  to  take  refuge  in  the  interior  of  his  house.  He 
met  us  in  the  hall  with  excuses  and  a  lighted  candle,  a 
cera  santa,  remarkable  for  its  odoriferous  rather  than  illumi- 
native qualities.  These  candles,  composed  of  a  mixture  of 
beeswax  and  frankincense,  are  prepared  by  the  Mexican 
ladies  for  the  exclusive  use  of  the  church ;  and  after  a  con- 
fession to  that  effect  Don  Panclio  ushered  us  into  the  next 
room,  shut  the  windows,  and  left  the  ecclesiastic  candle  on 
the  table. 

The  residence  of  the  average  ranchero  is  one  story,  and 
contains  four  apartments, — the  bedroom  (reserved  for  the 
members  of  the  family) ;  the  kitchen,  used  also  as  a  dining- 
and  sitting-room ;  the  almacen,  or  larder ;  and  the  silleria, 
or  harness-room,  where  the  ranchero  keeps  his  saddle,  his 
tools,  and  often  his  dogs.  Strangers  sleep  in  their  own 
blankets, — in  fair  weather  on  the  portico,  in  stormy  nights 
in  the  sitting-room.  Besides  the  long  dining-table  and 
kitchen  furniture,  the  apartment  contained  a  clothes-press, 
and  upon  it  a  cage  full  of  turtle-doves,  the  favorite  pet  of 
the  Mexican  farmer ;  two  looms,  a  spinning-wheel,  and  a 
contrivance  that  would  have  created  a  general  sensation  in 
a  Northern  industrial  fair, — a  combination  of  concentric 
cudgels,  not  unlike  a  forty-legged  saw-horse,  which  the 
Mexican  women  use  in  the  manufacture  of  polychromatic 
ponchos  and  bandannas.  They  entwine  the  arms  of  the 
wooden  Briareus  with  as  many  different  patterns  of  woollen 
yarn,  and  need  only  to  twirl  the  implement  to  get  any  de- 
sired shade  uppermost  and  handy  for  immediate  use.  The 
cera  santa  began  to  fill  the  room  with  a  resinous  odor  of 
sanctity,  but  every  now  and  then  it  sputtered  like  a  blazing 
sausage ;  so  we  put  it  out. 

Before  we  left  the  stock-farm  the  kind  ranchero  presented 
us  with  a  bagful  of  wild  pineapples  which  his  daughters 


SONORA.  49 

had  gathered  in  the  sierra,  and  had  ah'eady  commenced  tlie 
valedictory  liandshakinti;  when  lie  remembered  that  one  of 
his  sheepwalks  up  on  the  river  needed  looking  after,  so 
that  he  might  as  well  accompany  us  for  a  couple  of  miles. 
We  followed  the  windings  of  the  Cafias  Valley  for  some 
distance,  and  then  turned  to  the  right  into  a  deep  moun- 
tain gorge  at  a  point  where  a  wayside  tavern  displayed  its 
red-and-white  flag  as  a  sign  that  the  posadero  had  pulque 
(aloe-sap)  for  sale.  But  good  wine  needs  no  bush,  and  the 
gayest  pulque-flag  cannot  redeem  the  reputation  of  the 
vender  of  an  inferior  article ;  so  we  took  the  ranchero's 
hint  and  pursued  our  road,  which  led  us  gradually  up  liill 
and  back  to  the  main  plateau  of  the  Encinal. 

"  You  never  feed  those  hogs,  do  you  ?"  asked  the  Boss, 
apropos  of  a  sow  that  hastened  across  the  road  with  her 
litter  of  pigs. 

"  I  don't,  for  one  good  reason  :  I  have  nothing  to  give 
them,"  laughed  the  Mexican  ;  "  but  they  find  all  they  want 
in  the  woods  and  creeks  the  year  round.  Creatures  that 
can  digest  snakes  need  not  starve  in  this  country." 

"  If  I  may  ask,  seiior,  have  you  ever  ascertained  if  it  is 
true  that  only  black  hogs  can  eat  poisonous  snakes  with 
impunity  ?" 

"  It's  strange  now,  isn't  it?"  said  the  Mexican.  "  1  sup- 
pose you  heard  that  in  your  own  country,  and  the  same 
belief  is  very  common  in  many  parts  of  Mexico.  The 
truth  is,  that  all  full-grown  hogs  are  snake-proof;  the 
thickness  of  their  hide  and  bacon  protects  them,  for  snakes 
do  not  bite  very  deep, — anyhow,  not  deep  enough  to  pen- 
etrate the  callous  upper  skin  of  a  pig.  But  it  is  true  that 
black  hogs  are  more  active  as  a  general  thing :  the  white 
ones,  you  may  have  noticed,  have  reddish  eyes :  they  are  a 
sort  of  pallotes  (albiuoes),  I  think,  and  not  very  quick- 


50  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

witted ;  but  catch  a  live  rattlesnake  and  throw  it  right  in 
front  of  a  white  hog,  and  you  will  see  if  he  doesn't  make 
short  work  of  it.  A  dog  or  horse  in  such  a  case  would 
jump  aside  as  if  it  had  seen  the  devil." 

"Are  there  any  wild  hogs  in  the  sierra?" 

"  No  hogs,  but  you  find  plenty  of  wild  goats  in  any  of 
the  mountains  around  here." 

"  Cabras  (antelopes),  you  mean  ?" 

"  No,  sefior, — cabras  reales,  genuine  bearded  white  goats  ; 
I  shot  five  of  them  last  winter." 

"  They  must  have  run  wild, — descended  from  our  com- 
mon domestic  goat,  I  mean." 

"  I  think  so,  but  it  must  have  been  long  ago.  I  re- 
member ray  father  telling  about  his  dogs  killing  them  by 
dozens  in  the  Altar  Mountains.  They  are  not  very  differ- 
ent from  our  domestic  goats,  but  they  run  like  deer  if  they 
get  sight  of  a  human  being." 

"  Would  it  not  pay  to  hunt  them  for  their  hides  ?"  asked 
the  Boss. 

"  Hardly,  unless  you  have  a  tannery  of  your  own ;  but 
I  tell  you  what  does  pay  first-rate, — wolf-hunting.  The 
government  pays  ^ve  pesos  for  every  wolf-scalp  and  two 
for  every  coyote,  and  before  they  abolished  the  State  bounty 
a  man  could  '  kill  vermin  for  his  livelihood.' " 

"  You  don't  use  strychnine,  do  you  ?" 

"  No :  that  can  only  be  done  in  a  free  country  like  yours  : 
our  people  cannot  buy  or  sell  any  kind  of  poison  without 
a  special  permit.  It  would  make  matters  too  easy  for  our 
dear  squaws.  That's  my  sheepwalk,  gentlemen,"  said  the 
ranchero,  pointing  to  a  black-and-white  dotted  slope  on  a 
neighboring  mountain-side.  "  I  must  leave  you  where  that 
road  turns  off  to  the  right." 

"  I  wonder,"  said  I,  "  if  English  prize-sheep  could  ever 


SONOItA.  5  J 

get  up  that  mountain?  Just  look  at  these  fat  monsters, 
caballero,"  handing  him  a  copy  of  the  Illustrated  London 
News:  "have  you  ever  seen  the  like  in  this  part  of  the 
world  ?" 

While  he  inspected  the  paper  I  nudged  my  companion 
and  whispered  in  his  ear,  "  Try  to  make  him  accept  some 
compensation." 

"  He  wouldn't  do  it." 

"  Try,  anyhow." 

"  The  English  would  take  our  wethers  for  antelopes,  if 
that's  what  they  call  sheep,"  laughed  the  ranchero.  "  Here 
is  your  paper,  sir." 

"Caballero,"  said  the  wagonmaster,  "would  you  do  me 
a  favor  ?" 

"If  lean." 

"  You  know  I  am  a  tradesman,  and  1  should  like  to  es- 
tablish a  market  for  our  smoking-tobacco  in  this  part  of 
the  country :  would  you  oblige  me  by  accepting  this  sam- 
ple ?"  offering  him  a  four-pound  package.  "  Please  keep 
it,  and  let  your  neighbors  try  it,  and  let  me  know  how  they 
like  it  if  I  come  this  way  again." 

"  What  is  it  worth  ?"  asked  the  ranchero. 

"  I  don't  remember  just  now,  but  I  shall  let  you  know 
before  Christmas.  Prices  are  changing  continually,  you 
know.     Please  keep  it  in  the  meanwhile." 

"No,  that  would  not  do,  seiior.  Be  kind  enough  to  tell 
me  the  average  price.  This  is  nearly  five  pounds,  I  should 
say  ?" 

"  Oh,  that  package  you  mean  ?  Why,  that's  a  sample  : 
they  are  always  free  to  reliable  parties." 

Don  Pancho's  eyes  twinkled  under  his  broad-brimmed 
sombrero.  "  You  are  very  kind,  sir,"  said  he.  "  Well," 
with  a  good-humored  smile,  "you  may  always  rely  on  one 


52  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

tiling, — that  my  old  house-door  will  be  open  whenever  you 
or  your  companions  return  to  the  Val  de  Canas.  Let  me 
have  another  one  of  those  apples  in  your  lunch-basket. 
Thank  you  ;  and  now  good-by,  amigosJ' 

He  shook  hands  all  round,  and  made  us  a  respectful 
parting  bow,  as  if  we  had  put  him  under  some  great  obli- 
gation, instead  of  having  been  feasted  and  lodged  at  his 
expense,  for  when  he  was  gone  we  found  the  four-pound 
package  in  the  lunch-basket. 

The  horizon  cleared  up  before  night,  and  when  we 
reached  a  mulberry-grove  on  the  bank  of  the  Rio  Fuerte 
the  sun  set  behind  a  streak  of  that  fleecy  white  mist  which 
is  a  surer  presage  of  fair  weather  than  a  perfectly  cloud- 
less sky.  I  do  not  know  if  the  cicadas  of  ancient  Greece 
were  identical  with  the  West  Mexican  species,  but  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  classic  poets  would  appear  less  inexplicable 
if  the  locust  orchestras  of  their  woods  were  not  quite  so 
monotonous  as  the  katydid  concerts  of  our  Northern  sum- 
mer nights.  I  think  I  distinguished  a  dozen  different 
notes  in  the  insect-music  that  came  from  the  tree-tops  of 
our  mulberry-grove, — the  well-known  chirp  of  the  locust 
proper,  a  long-drawn  whir,  a  twang,  a  low  whistle,  a  singu- 
lar bell-like  ring,  a  combination  of  a  click  and  .a  squeak, 
and  a  variety  of  insect-diphthongs  for  which  the  English 
alphabet  yields  no  equivalent.  Singly  repeated,  they  would 
have  been  tiresome,  but  their  combined  effect  was  quite 
entertaining.  The  .smallest  of  the  Mexican  tree-locusts 
( Cicada  dryas),  a  thing  about  as  large  as  a  castor-bean,  chirps 
louder  than  a  sparrow;  and  if  it  is  true  that  it  produces 
those  sounds  by  rubbing  its  hind  legs  against  the  edge  of  its 
wings,  the  energy  of  the  tiny  fiddler  is  truly  astonishing. 

I  could  not  help  admiring  the  wisdom  of  a  merciful 
Creator,  who  has  not  increased  the  vocal  power  of  animals 


SON  OR  A.  53 

in  proportion  to  their  size,  when  the  overture  of  a  coyote 
serenade  sounded  over  the  hills  about  an  hour  after  sunset. 
It  commenced  with  a  slow  crescendo,  so  irresistibly  lugu- 
brious that  two  of  our  dogs  at  once  raised  their  heads  and 
swelled  their  voices  into  a  responsive  tremolo,  which  may 
have  been  heard  and  appreciated  by  their  distant  relatives. 
A  kick  brought  their  antiphones  to  an  abrupt  finale,  but 
every  now  and  then  their  irrepressible  feelings  found  vent 
in  a  low  whine. 

It  cannot  be  hunger  that  makes  the  Mexican  coyotes 
howl,  for  the  forests  of  the  Encinal  are  inexhaustible  store- 
houses of  animal  food,  and  the  occasional  disappointments 
which  may  attend  their  predatory  enterprises  would  hardly 
furnish  an  excuse  for  such  loud  and  protracted  laments.  It 
is  rather  an  elegiac  tendency,  which  manifests  itself  in  all 
the  varieties  of  the  genus  Canis,  for  even  the  dingo,  the 
voiceless  dog  of  the  Australian  wilderness,  breaks  forth  into 
sympathetic  grunts  if  he  hears  a  puppy  whine.  It  is  the  one 
touch  of  Nature  which  makes  all  canines  kin,  and  has  prob- 
ably been  inherited  from  their  common  ancestor,  the  wolf, 
once  "a  mighty  hunter  before  the  Lord,"  but  who  may 
have  learned  to  howl  when  his  business  declined  under  the 
competition  of  Nimrod  &  Co.,  till  the  hunter  became  the 
hunted,  unless  he  preferred  to  enter  the  service  of  his  rival 
at  dog- wages. 


CHAPTER    11. 

COLIMA. 

Know  ye  the  secrets  of  the  nether  sea, 

Or  what  the  pathless  virgin  woods  conceal  ? 

Chamisso  :    The  God  of  Earth. 

Absolute  monarchs  must  be  absolutely  abolished,  but 
it  can  do  no  harm  to  confess  that  they  were  generally  good 
roadmakers.  The  great  highways  of  Hadrian  were  mili- 
tary march-routes,  and  those  of  Peter  the  Great  all  con- 
verged upon  his  pet  capital ;  but,  whatever  may  have  been 
King  Philip's  private  motive,  it  is  certain  that  he  and  his 
successors  expended  a  large  portion  of  their  bonanza  rev- 
enues on  the  construction  of  broad  and  imperishable  wagon- 
roads  throughout  their  Transatlantic  dominions.  The 
Mexican  republic  has  found  no  time  to  extend  or  repair 
the  "  royal  roads"  {caminos  reales)  of  their  territory,  but 
the  public  works  of  the  vireys  can  stand  neglect,  and,  like 
those  of  Appius  Claudius,  will  not  be  much  the  worse  for 
the  wear  and  tear  of  a  series  of  centuries. 

Sixty  miles  north  of  San  Luis  Potosi  we  struck  one  of 
these  ante-republican  roads,  and  thenceforth  were  sure  to 
find  a  solid  bridge  at  every  creek  and  a  massive  safety-wall 
along  every  precipice.  The  bird's-eye  views  from  a  slippery 
bridle-path  often  suggest  possibilities  which  only  a  bird  can 
contemplate  with  equanimity,  but  the  bulwarks  of  our  ca- 
mino  enabled  us  to  admire  the  abysmal  valleys  at  our  feet 
with  more  than  the  safety  of  travellers  over  a  Pacific  Rail- 
54 


COLIMA. 


55 


ON   THE    ROAD    TO    SAN    LUIS. 


way  viaduct.  While  my  eyes  wandered  tlirough  the  cloud- 
land  of  blue  heights  that  border  the  eastern  horizon  of  the 
Val  de  Potosi  I  noticed  repeatedly  a  curious  column  of 
white  smoke  that  seemed  to  ascend  from  a  lateral  valley 
in  the  southeast,  and  stood  in  sharp  relief  against  the  back- 
ground of  dark-blue  pine-hills  when  our  road  brought  us 
opposite  a  gap  in  the  intermediate  mountains.  Right  over 
the  valley  hung  a  streak  of  grayish  clouds  from  which 
the  white  pillar  seemed  to  depend  like  an  icicle,  but  its 
upward  rotatory  motion  and  the  immobility  of  its  lower 
end  proved  its  terrestrial  origin.  What  could  it  be?  My 
pocket-telescope  failed  to  solve  the  puzzle,  so  I  put  it  back 
and  looked  at  ray  companion,  who  had  watched  me  with  a 
cunning  smile. 

"  Can't  you  guess?"  said  he,  anticipating  my  question. 

"No;  but  it  looks  like  a  large  steam-factory, — uidess  it's 
a  volcano." 

"You  came  nearer  the  truth  the  first  time,"  said  tiie 
Boss :  "  it  isn't  smoke,  but  pure  steam.     Tiiat's  the  geyser 


56  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

of  Aguas  Calientes,  near  Los  Banos.  We  are  only  forty 
miles  from  San  Luis  now." 

"  A  geyser  ?  Why,  that  column  must  be  at  least  four 
thousand  feet  high  !" 

"  If  you  mean  the  steam,  that  goes  up  on  cold  days 
higher  than  the  highest  clouds;  but  the  water  itself  spouts 
up  from  a  pond  at  the  head  of  a  little  creek  not  more  than 
ten  or  twelve  feet  over  the  level  of  the  banks.  If  it  didn't 
come  up  through  the  pond  you  would  not  see  any  water 
at  all,  they  say ;  it  is  superheated  steam,  hotter  than  the 
hottest  springs,  and  the  noise  it  makes  reminds  you  of  a 
copper-furnace  in  full  blast.  A  sheer  waste  of  fuel  wher- 
ever it  comes  from  :  I  saw  the  place  four  years  ago,  and  I 
do  not  think  there  is  as  much  as  a  bath-house  there." 

"  Is  there  anything  like  a  watering-place  at  the  banos 
over  yonder?"  I  asked  an  intelligent-looking  caballero  who 
overtook  us  a  few  minutes  after  and  appeared  to  be  in  a 
communicative  mood. 

"  There  ought  to  be,"  said  he,  "  but  the  place  has  some- 
how failed  to  become  fashionable.  We  have  a  hotel  at 
the  springs,  besides  a  dozen  taverns  in  the  village,  but  it 
doesn't  pay :  the  valley  is  too  far  out  of  the  way,  and  the 
poor  people  of  the  neighborhood  can  bathe  anywhere  below 
the  hotel :  three  miles  this  side  of  the  pond  the  creek  is 
still  warm  enough  to  be  pleasant  in  winter-time." 

"  Excuse  my  curiosity,"  s;aid  the  stranger,  after  half  an 
hour  of  topographical  small-talk ;  "  are  you  not  from 
France  or  of  French  descent  ?" 

"  Almost,  senor :  I  was  born  in  the  French  Nether- 
lands." 

"  Didn't  I  guess  it  ?"  laughed  the  caballero.  "  I  was  a 
good  while  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  I  can  recognize  the 
pronunciation  of  a  Yankee  or  an  Italian  before  he  has 


CO  LIMA. 


67 


spoken  a  dozen  words.  There's  a  countryman  of  yours 
owning  a  pretty  farm  a  few  miles  above  my  ])laee,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river.  I  could  never  remember  his  name, 
or  I  should  advise  you  to  stop  there  to-night ;  he  would  be 
the  happiest  man  in  Mexico  to  have  a  paysano  under  his 


AOUAS    C'ALIKNTES. 


roof.  We  have  a  horse- fair  at  Montellano  to-day,  and  if  I 
should  meet  him  there  I  would  bet  my  spurs  that  he'll 
overtake  you  somewhere  between  here  and  San  Luis." 

The  Belgians  and  French  abuse  each  other  as  rancoroiisly 
as  the  English  and  Scotch,  but,  like  the  English  and  Scotch, 
they  fraternize  if  they  meet  in  Spanish  Americii,  as  they 


58  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

would  fraternize  with  a  Spanish  American  if  they  made 
his  acquaintance  in  Saraarcand.  "  Pour  aimer  votre  voi- 
sin,"  says  Montaigne,  "  il  faut  le  rencontrer  dans  un  pays 
stranger ;"  and  I  fully  believe  that  Muktar  Pasha  would 
embrace  a  Russian  general  if  he  should  meet  him  in  the 
Mountains  of  the  Moon.  More  than  once  after  the  cabal- 
lero  had  left  us  I  looked  back,  as  if  I  expected  a  message 
from  my  unknown  half-countryman  ;  and  toward  evening, 
when  a  Mexican  boy  came  tearing  after  us  on  a  naked 
horse,  I  somehow  knew  his  errand  beforehand. 

"  Mr.  Laurent  is  coming  this  way  with  a  tent- wagon," 
he  gasped  when  he  reached  the  wagonmaster's  team,  "  and 
if  you  will  please  to  slow  up  a  little,  he  will  overtake  you 
on  this  side  of  the  ford." 

"Who's  Mr.  Laurent?" 

"  I  suppose  it's  some  acquaintance  of  that  gentleman  we 
met  on  the  ridge  this  morning,"  said  I :  "  he  told  me  some- 
thing about  a  farm  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  he 
advised  us  to  stop  to-night." 

"  Yes,  sir, — that's  Mr.  Aime  Laurent's  place,"  cried  the 
boy. 

"  Well,  then,  tell  Mr.  Emmy  Laurent  to  hurry  up,"  said 
the  Boss :  "  we're  going  into  camp  before  the  sun  goes 
down." 

The  banks  of  the  Rio  Fuerte  are  lined  with  stately  big- 
nonia-trees ;  and  here  I  saw  for  the  first  time  the  singular 
reptile  which  the  Spaniards  call  iguana  and  the  Portuguese 
cayman  do  matto, — i.e.,  "  tree-alligator."  Tlie  latter  name 
may  have  been  suggested  by  the  formidable  appearance  of 
an  animal  which  attains  a  length  of  seven  feet  and  a  weight 
of  sixty-five  pounds,  and  jumps  from  tree  to  tree  with  the 
impetus  of  a  tiger-cat ;  but  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  igu- 
ana is  the  most  harmless  creature  of  that  size  which  ever 


COLIMA.  59 


jumped  or  flew  or  swam  on  this  planet  of  ours, — the  most 
harmless  creature  of  any  size,  we  might  say,  for  the  little 
goldfish  and  the  robin  redbreast  are  beasts  of  prey  com- 
pared with  the  tree-alligator;  they  will  hurt  a  fly,  but  the 
iguana  is  a  strict  vegetarian,  aiul  like  an  orthodox  Hindoo 


4  ^i^Cc 


•'  tree-alligator"  (iguana). 

endeavors  to  prolong  his  life  without  shortening  that  of  a 
fellow-creature.  Still,  with  its  saurian  beak,  its  preposterous 
claws,  and  the  row  of  bristles  along  its  backbone,  this  giant 
lizard  is  a  scandalous  phenomenon ;  and  a  big  green  one, 
with  a  head  like  the  seventh  beast  of  the  Apocidypse, 
plumping  down  from  a  bignonia-tree  and  scampering  into 
the  underbrush,  had  provoked  me  to  snatch  up  a  tent- 


go  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

pole  and  start  in  hot  pursuit,  when  the  monotonous  rumble 
of  our  freight- wagons  was  interrupted  by  the  rattling  of  a 
lighter  team  that  seemed  to  approach  at  a  lively  trot.  As 
I  emerged  from  the  thicket  a  pair-horse  country-wagon 
passed  our  rear  teams  and  the  wagonmaster  tightened  his 
reins. 

"  Oh,  here  he  is  now,"  said  the  Boss  when  he  caught 
siglit  of  me.  "  Please  come  over  here,  sir  ;  here's  a  cabal- 
lero  from  the  other  side  of  the  river  wants  your  casting  vote 
on  a  point  we  can't  agree  upon.  He  wants  us  to  camp  in 
this  bottom  or  else  on  his  farm  on  the  other  side,  but  I'm 
afraid  we  must  forego  that  pleasure ;  it's  only  a  mile  and  a 
half  to  Mr.  Carmen's  place,' and  I  have  to  stop  there  either 
to-day  or  to-morrow." 

The  "  caballero  from  the  other  side"  was  leaning  against 
the  front  wheel  of  our  team, — a  black-haired  farmer  with  a 
semi-Mexican  hat  and  shawl,  but  in  the  unmistakable  black- 
trimmed  leather  jacket  of  the  Pays  de  Vaud.  Our  eyes 
met,  and  monsieur  saluted  me  with  a  gesture  that  es- 
tablished his  nationality  before  we  had  exchanged  a  single 
word. 

"  I  am  sorry  that  you  passed  the  ford,"  said  he,  in  toler- 
able Spanish,  "  but  ray  rancho  is  right  across  there,  and  if 
I  can  supply  you  with  anything  you  expected  to  get  at  Mr. 
Carmen's  place " 

The  Boss  made  no  reply,  but  looked  meditatively  at  the 
western  horizon. 

"  If  you  permit  me  a  vote  on  the  subject,  Mr.  Davis," 
said  I,  "  it  seems  to  me  that  we  could  do  worse  than  camp 
under  such  trees  as  these.  There's  any  amount  of  firewood 
in  that  thicket, — good  water,  too;  and  what  else  do  we 
need  ?" 

"  Well,"  replied  the  Boss,  "  the  truth  is,  we  are  short 


COLIMA.  Ql 

of  corn ;  but  if"  this  gentleman  can  sell  us  I'our  or  five 
bushels  I  guess  we  could  camp  here  as  well  tus  anywhere 
else." 

"  If  you  stop  anywhere  in  this  bottom,"  said  the  farmer, 
"  the  corn  shall  be  here  before  you  have  unharnessed  your 
horses." 

His  boy  galloped  toward  the  river  and  our  caravan 
wended  its  wav  to  the  bisnonia  e-rove. 

These  preliminaries  settled,  Mr.  Laurent  took  me  aside 
and  the  floodgates  of  his  vernacular  then  oj)ened.  He  had 
purchased  his  farm  fourteen  years  ago,  and  lived  here  ever 
since,  twenty-eight  miles  from  the  next  sympathizing  fel- 
low-Frenchman, a  linguistic  exile  which  only  lioj)e  and  a 
volume  of  Beranger's  Chansons  had  enabled  him  to  sup- 
port. Mexican  conversation,  Mexican  gossip,  Mexican 
sermons,  and  untranslatable  Mexican  blasphemies  from 
morning  till  night, — his  very  children  vexed  his  ears  with 
their  Spanish  volubility.  He  had  launched  them  in  the 
right  direction,  hoping  that  the  inherent  force  of  the  lanyue 
de  France  would  make  head  against  wind  and  tide,  but  the 
surrounding  elements  had  prevailed.  "  I  give  them  up," 
said  he :  "  it  takes  a  headstrong  man  to  hold  his  own  against 
the  current,  but  if  it  comes  to  pulling  a  whole  family  the 
other  way,  you  might  as  well  try  to  paddle  a  raft  against 
the  stream." 

"  Who  is  your  next  countryman  ?"  I  asked,  after  answer- 
ing a  number  of  direct  and  indirect  questions. 

"The  next  one  is  Monsieur  Vail ier,  the  nurseryman,  two 
miles  this  side  of  San  Luis,  but  there  are  tour  more  in  tlic 
city." 

"  I  suppose  you  know  Dr.  Rambert,  the  superintendent 
of  the  city  hospital  ?     How  is  he  getting  along  now  ?" 

"Old  Jacques  Rambert?    Oh,  he's  all  riglit.     I  see  him 


g2  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

almost  every  month :  he's  got  a  large  practice  outside  of 
the  hospital  among  the  rich  burghers." 

"  It's  a  wonder  how  he  can  manage  that  in  such  a  holy- 
saints  place  as  San  Luis." 

"  Now,  isn't  it,  sir  ?  It  seems  you  know  him,  then,  the 
godless  old  heretic !  It's  an  everlasting  puzzle  to  me  that 
they  haven't  cut  his  head  off  yet,  nor  even  his  nose :  they 
hate  him  like  a  were-wolf,  and  he  tells  me  that  they  suspect 
him  of  witchcraft;  but  that's  his  salvation,  maybe:  they 
let  him  alone  because  their  superstition  gets  the  better  of 
their  spite.  Still,  he  ought  to  be  more  careful :  his  best 
friend,  the  alcalde,  died  last  summer,  and  I  have  an  idea 
that  the  black  rats  are  getting  ready  for  hira.  I  should  not 
like  to  be  in  his  boots  next  Christmas  when  the  town  is 
full  of  mounted  Indians :  somebody  ought  to  warn  him." 

"  Never  mind.  Those  Indians  must  come  well  mounted 
if  they  expect  to  catch  him  next  Christmas  :  I  am  going  to 
relieve  him  to-morrow." 

"You  are?  Well,  sir,  that  accounts  for  it  that  he  was 
in  such  good-humor  last  week.  Where  is  he  going  to  ? — 
back  to  Europe  ?" 

"No,  he  is  going  north,  to  Upper  California.  I  was  on 
his  brother's  farm  near  Los  Angeles  a  month  ago,  and  I  see 
they  have  everything  ready  for  him  :  they  are  going  to  cure 
him  with  California  honey  and  country  milk.  His  brother 
will  meet  him  in  Guaymas  next  week." 

"  Ah !  that's  the  reason  he  was  so  anxious  about  that 
rumor  from  Sonora.  By  the  way,  what's  the  news  from 
the  rebel  army  ?" 

"  They  are  still  at  El  Paso,  so  far  as  I  know ;  but  the 
Eastern  mail  was  over-due  when  we  left,  so  there's  no 
saying  what  they  may  liave  been  up  to  since.  But  who 
cares  ?" 


COLIMA.  g3 

"Not  I,"  said  my  courteous  landsman,  " since  you  got 
through  all  right.  But  what's  the  matter  with  your  Amer- 
ican friend  ?  Listen  :  there  he  goes  again.  Is  that  a  sick- 
ness or  an  English  song?" 

"A  supper-signal,  I  suppose." 

"Good-night,  then,  mon  voisin  a  venir,"  said  Mr.  Lau- 
rent :  "  I  owe  you  a  visit,  and  I  shall  pay  it  in  San  Luis 
next  Sunday." 

Our  teamsters  trimmed  their  horses  and  trappings  the 
next  morning,  and  I  tried  to  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  an 
hour's  sleep  after  sunrise,  but  the  neighborhood  of  the  large 
city  announced  itself  too  audibly.  Wagons  and  carts  nun- 
bled  along  the  camino,  mules  trotted  to  market  with  a  load 
of  squealing  pigs,  a  fulling-mill  in  the  valley  commenced 
its  noisy  work,  and  from  three  different  mountain-sides  I 
heard  sounds  which  affect  me  more  than  other  discords  in 
the  harmony  of  Nature, — axe-strokes,  preluding  a  splinter- 
ing crash  and  a  fall,  followed  by  the  sympathetic  shudder 
of  the  surrounding  hills.  In  a  thinly- wooded  country  those 
echoes  always  sound  in  my  ear  with  a  sad  significance,  like 
a  dirge  of  the  wood-nymphs  or  a  lament  of  our  Mother 
Earth  for  the  loss  of  her  first-born.  The  tree-felling  axe 
is  the  sword  that  has  expelled  the  children  of  the  East  from 
their  Paradise,  and  which  in  the  West  too  has  struck  deep 
into  the  root  of  Ygdrasil,  the  Life  Tree  of  the  Edda,  whose 
downfall  will  involve  the  final  ruin  of  gods  and  men. 

Mr.  Carmen's  place  proved  to  be  a  turnpike  tavern  with 
a  large  corral,  where  ten  or  twelve  horses  were  haltered  in 
a  row.  The  veranda  was  crowded  with  muleteers  and  trav- 
ellers, and  one  of  them  stepped  down  and  met  us  at  the 
turnpike.  "  I  think  I  passed  you  last  nigiit  at  the  Rio, 
caballeros,"  said  he:  "do  you  come  from  the  frontier?" 

"  Yes,  from  Guayraas,  sir,"  said  the  Boss. 


54  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

"  From  Guaymas !  Why,  on  what  day  did  you  leave 
there?" 

"  Let  me  see " 

"We  left  there  on  the  nineteenth  of  this  month,"  said 
the  sergeant. 

"  Is  it  possible  ?"  cried  the  traveller.  "  Look  here,  ca- 
balleros !"  he  hailed  his  friends  on  the  veranda :  "  this  con- 
ducfa  has  left  Guaymas  on  the  nineteenth  of  this  month ! 
Santissima !  just  at  the  nick  of  time !" 

A  crowd  was  around  us  in  a  moment  and  fairly  bewil- 
dered us  with  a  flood  of  questions  and  congratulations.  Did 
we  hear  the  news  ?  Pedro  Mendez  had  captured  Guaymas 
on  the  twenty-first  and  avenged  his  late  defeat  by  plunder- 
ing every  house  in  Western  Sonora. 

"Ye  have  more  luck  than  sense  !"  yelled  a  little  arriero: 
"  you  must  have  a  good-sized  guardian  saint  about  you,  or 
is  there  a  friar  in  your  crowd  ?" 

"  No,  sir,"  said  the  sergeant,  "  we  are  heretics,  every  one 
of  us :  at  midnight  you  can  smell  the  brimstone  for  a  mile 
and  a  half  around ;  but,  you  see,  we  are  Americans,  and  old 
Pedro  knew  better  than  to  tackle  the  town  before  we  were 
out  of  the  way." 

"  There  wouldn't  have  been  much  time  for  prayers  if  he 
had  catched  ye,"  laughed  the  landlord ;  "  but  never  mind, 
you're  all  right  now :  we  will  attend  to  the  old  man  if  he 
comes  this  way." 

We  reached  Potosi  an  hour  before  sundown.  The  city 
was  agog  with  rumors  and  political  demonstrations,  and  one 
of  the  teamsters  had  to  help  me  get  my  baggage  to  my 
room,  the  landlady  of  the  hotel  informing  us  that  all  her 
male  employfe  had  run  off*  to  join  the  mass-meeting  on 
the  plaza.  Even  Dr.  Rambert  marched  me  up-stairs  into 
his  studio  and  handed  me  a  newspaper  as  soon  as  he  had 


COLIMA.  (J  5 

answered  my  first  questions.  There  seemed  to  be  no  doubt 
about  the  fate  of  Guaymas.  The  insurgents  liad  defeated 
the  government  forces  near  El  Paso,  the  garrison  of  San 
Miguel  had  capitulated,  and  the  rebels  held  every  important 
town  in  Western  Sonora.  Sixteen  regiments  of  regulars 
under  General  Parras  were  advancing  from  IMonterey,  and 
a  brigade  of  loyal  volunteers  from  Chihuahua,  so  that  the 
suppression  of  the  rebellion  seemed  only  a  question  of  time ; 
but  the  fortified  towns  on  the  coast  might  ])rotract  their  re- 
sistance for  a  month  or  two,  and  in  the  meanwhile  all  traffic 
via  Guaymas  must  be  suspended. 

"  Well,  I  have  got  you  the  place,"  said  the  doctor,  return- 
ing at  last  from  politics  to  personal  affairs,  "  but  witli  a  i^iiie 
qua  non :  you  have  to  pilot  me  through  to  San  Bla.s.  I  was 
in  conclave  with  the  agent  of  your  trading  company  yester- 
day, and  the  matter  is  settled  so  far  that  the  caravan  is  going 
back  by  way  of  Jalisco  and  San  Bias  instead  of  Guaymas, 
and  he  has  to  provide  us  transportation  from  here  to  San- 
tiago :  from  there  I  can  take  the  stage  to  jNIazatlan,  or  let 
your  teams  lug  me  to  San  Bias  and  wait  there  for  the  Pan- 
ama steamer." 

"  But  I  thought  Dr.  Patterson  was  going  along  ?" 

"  So  he  was,  but  he  has  to  go  by  way  of  Guayma'* :  in 
other  words,  he  has  to  wait  for  a  month  or  two.  I  got  him 
to  relieve  me  till  New  Year,  so  you  needn't  report  for  duty 
before  Christmas.  No  excuses,  amigo :  it's  my  last  week  in 
Spanish  America,  and  it  shall  be  a  pleasant  one." 

"  You  are  over-kind,  but  was  it  worth  while — worth  the 
expense,  I  mean — to " 

"  Yes,  it  was.  Your  agent's  terms  are  devilish  high,  and 
the  roads  are  wretched,  but  all  that  goes  for  nothing:  we 
shall  see  Lake  Chapala,  and  be  reconciled  to  an  earthly  pil- 
grimage that  has  led  us  through  Paradise.     It's  '  the  scenic 


QQ  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

masterpiece  of  the  Creator :'  that  is  the  phrase  of  a  man  who 
never  used  a  superlative  in  vain, — poor  Colonel  Holty  of  the 
Austrian  volunteers, — though  he  only  saw  it  on  that  unfor- 
tunate expedition  to  Pascarro,  and  after  Rion's  guerillas  had 
riddled  him  with  buckshot.  'If  St.  Peter  turns  me  off  1 
shall  ask  him  for  a  pass  to  Jalisco,'  he  told  me  when  he  got 
his  last  marching-order." 

"  It  wouldn't  be  much  of  a  pleasure-trip  for  you  if  you 
are  not  used  to  prairie-schooner  voyages ;  but,  as  you  say, 
I  suppose  we  are  in  for  it.  I  am  sorry,  though,  we  cannot 
postpone  it  for  a  couple  of  weeks." 

"  So  am  I,  but  I  am  due  in  Los  Angeles.  And  as  for 
your  prairie-schooners,  I  shall  be  thankful  for  any  kind  of 
locomotive  contrivance  that  moves  me  from  this  town.  My 
time  is  up :  the  place  is  getting  too  tight  for  me." 

"  Why  ?  Are  the  saints  getting  the  better  of  you,  after 
all?" 

"Yes,  amigo,  I'm  going  to  the  wall:  they're  too  many 
for  me.  Do  you  know  that  I  had  to  pay  those  ten  dollars, 
anyhow  ?" 

"What  ten  dollars?" 

"  For  that  saddle-horse  I  wrote  you  about :  don't  you 
remember  ?" 

"  I  can't  say  that  I  do." 

"  Bon  Dieu  !  Didn't  you  get  my  last  letter  ?  You  re- 
collect that  I  used  to  hire  a  horse  once  or  twice  a  week  :  they 
have  no  regular  livery-stables  here,  but  I  had  made  an  ar- 
rangement with  a  baker  down  on  the  plaza,  who  generally 
lent  me  the  same  old  mare  every  Saturday.  About  a  month 
ago  the  brute  had  a  sort  of  seizure ;  I  think  it  was  nothing 
but  what  our  veterinary  surgeons  used  to  call  '  blind  stag- 
gers,' but  my  worthy  neighbors  put  their  heads  together  and 
seemed  to  have  a  good  mind  to  mob  me.     It  was  a  preter- 


COLIMA.  67 

natural  disease,  they  said:  the  mare  must  have  been  be- 
witched ;  and  no  wonder,  if  she  had  to  carry  a  monster  \vlio 
kept  liis  pockets  cramful  of  heretical  books !  Tliey  talla^d 
about  searching  my  room  for  necromantic  implements,  and 
the  owner  of  the  beast  left  me  an  alternative  between  a 
compromise  and  a  lawsuit." 

"  Would  a  Mexican  judge  actually  commit  you  on  such 
a  charge  ?" 

"  He  would  not  acquit  me  in  his  heart,  whatever  he  might 
do  for  fear  of  the  European  consuls;  and  the  wretches  threat- 
ened to  cure  my  infidelity  with  a  potato-masher ;  so,  for  the 
sake  of  holy  peace  that  surpasses  all  reason,  I  let  the  fool 
have  his  ten  dollars  and  kicked  him  down-stairs." 

"Do  they  only  pretend  to  believe  such  things,  or  is  it 
possible  that  they  are  in  earnest  about  it?" 

"  Their  faith  recognizes  no  impossibilities  at  all.  If  you 
think  that  their  stupidity  has  any  limits,  that  affair  of  tlie 
Protestant  miner  in  Belcarras  should  undeceive  you.  Did 
you  ev6r  read  the  account  of  his  trial  ?" 

"  I  read  the  report  of  the  English  consul :  they  sentenced 
him  for  '  witchcraft  in  the  first  degree' — ten  years,  wasn't 
it? — and  three  months  extra  for  contempt  of  court  beciiuse 
he  attempted  an  argumentum  ex  absurdoJ' 

"  You  would  not  mention  such  trifles  if  you  had  reiid  the 
'circumstantial  evidence,'"  laughed  the  doctor.  "I  will 
show  you  a  copy  of  the  proceedings :  it's  valuable  from 
a  medical  standpoint  if  you  have  a  taste  for  the  study  of 
mental  diseases." 

The  Rocky  Mountains  of  the  United  States  cross  the 
Mexican  frontier  in  two  main  chains,  which  gradually  con- 
verge toward  the  south  till  they  unite  near  the  liead-\vatei*s 
of  the  Rio  Lerma,  about  fifty  English  miles  nortiieast  of 


(38  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

Acapulco.  Near  the  Rio  Grande  their  water-sheds  are  at 
least  two  hundred  miles  apart,  and  the  intermediate  region 
is  comparatively  arid ;  but  as  the  ridges  converge  the  central 
valley  becomes  more  humid  and  fertile,  till  south  of  Potosi 
the  cornfields,  tlie  orchards,  and  finally  even  the  chestnut- 
groves  are  supplanted  by  the  rankness  of  the  spontaneous 
vegetation.  The  forest-trees  of  the  temperate  zone  grad- 
ually give  way  to  luxuriant  evergreens,  and  where  the  two 
sierras  coalesce  they  enclose  a  forest-delta  of  three  thousand 
English  square  miles,  which  white  men  have  but  rarely 
entered,  and  which  no  human  being  has  ever  attempted  to 
cross.  This  delta  is  drained  by  the  Rio  Lerma,  which  far- 
ther down  expands  into  a  glorious  lake,  and  carries  more 
water  to  the  sea  than  the  Rhine  or  the  Rio  Grande ;  but  no 
human  eye  has  ever  seen  the  source  of  that  river.  Fisher- 
men from  San  Bias  and  the  Jalisco  turtle-hunters  have  as- 
cended it  in  their  canoes  to  its  junction  with  the  Rio  Balsas, 
but  there  the  virgin  woods  of  the  delta  begin  to  interpose 
their  barrier  of  driftwood,  bush-ropes,  and  aquatic  trees, 
and  the  upper  course — perhaps  the  upper  half — of  a  broad 
American  river  is  as  unknown  as  the  fountain  of  the  Nile. 
The  eastern  slope  of  the  mountain-range  which  borders 
the  Rio  Lerma  below  the  lake  is  extremely  steep  and  rugged, 
and  farther  south,  where  its  height  sinks  from  fourteen 
thousand  to  six  thousand  feet,  its  western  foot-hills  are 
flanked  by  the  thickets  of  the  delta.  The  roads  which  unite 
Mazatlan  and  San  Bias  with  the  cities  of  the  table-land  have 
therefore  to  take  a  strangely  circuitous  route.  The  air-line 
from  Potosi  to  San  Bias,  for  instance,  would  run  due  west, 
but  terrestrial  travellers  have  first  to  go  south  to  Cuerna- 
vaca  in  the  valley  of  Anahuac,  thence  west  up  to  the  back- 
bone of  the  sierra,  due  north  along  the  ridge  toward  the 
lake,  and  again  west  to  a  pass  in  the  coast-range,  from  where 


COLIMA. 


69 


ON    TUE    LKRMA    RIVKR. 


points  on  the  Pacific  can   be  reached   by  a  less  tortuous 
route. 

We  followed  the  highway  as  far  as  Queretaro,  where  we 
engaged  a  professional  guide,  and  then  launched  our  prairie- 
schooners  on  the  old  military  road  to  the  west.  Our  cara- 
van had  passed  through  seven  degrees  of  latitude  since  we 
left  Guaymas,  and  near  the  tropic  of  Cancer  that  polar  dis- 
tance makes  an  appreciable  difference.  We  had  entered  the 
summer  zone.  The  river-sides  were  covered  witii  rhexia- 
thickets,  intermingled  with  wax-palms  and  wild  fig-trees, 
and  the  southern  slopes  of  tlie  foot-hills  flamed  with  yellow 
orchids  and  the  long  red  pipe-flowers  of  the  Salvia  splcndciwi, 
and  even  exhibited  some  good-sized  varieties  of  arborescent 


70  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

ferns.  The  valleys  of  Eastern  Michoacan  produce  a  thorny 
shrub  of  the  genus  Lycium  that  is  covered  with  a  profusion 
of  apparently  perennial  white  flowers  of  a  nauseous  sweet- 
ish smell,  which  seem  to  exercise  an  irresistible  attraction 
on  all  honey-loving  insects.  They  swarm  with  beetles,  blue- 
bottles, and  formidable  black  wasps,  but  they  are  veritable 
butterfly-traps,  and  enriched  my  collection  with  a  number  of 
tropical  swallow-tails  and  a  fine  specimen  of  the  dark-blue 
Papilio  castor.  We  saw  iris-crows  and  different  parrots,  and 
wherever  cattle  grazed  they  were  attended  by  flights  of  the 
black  cow-Yider  {Crotophagiis  cmi),  which  benefit  themselves 
and  the  cows  by  relieving  them  of  numerous  troublesome 
parasites.  The  southern  Mexicans  are  strangely  prejudiced 
against  these  birds,  and  a  Jalisco  farmer,  after  requiting 
their  labors  with  an  effective  discharge  of  his  old  trabucco, 
informed  me  that  they  were  a  worse  pest  than  weasels  and 
chicken-hawks.  " They  flay  our  stock  alive,"  said  he :  "a 
black  rascal  of  that  race  seems  to  think  that  I  keep  my  cattle 
for  no  other  purpose  but  to  furnish  him  with  cow-hairs." 

On  the  evening  of  the  second  day  after  our  departure 
from  Queretaro  we  crossed  the  Rio  Balsas  on  a  rope-ferry, 
and  encamped  near  an  abandoned  maderal,  or  lumber-yard, 
in  the  opposite  foot-hills.  The  darkness  of  the  night,  in- 
creased by  the  gloom  of  the  cedar  forest,  made  it  at  first 
rather  difficult  to  collect  the  material  for  a  camp-fire,  but  a 
blaze  of  dry  grass  and  furze  revealed  abundant  pineapples, 
and  when  the  flame  rose  high  enough  to  illuminate  the  out- 
skirts of  the  maderal  we  found  that  the  ground  was  strewed 
with  chips  and  good-sized  logs,  and  that  we  had  all  the 
wherewithal  of  a  first-rate  barbecue. 

The  teamsters  had  exchanged  some  of  their  superfluous 
bacon  for  a  six-gallon  keg  of  pulque,  and  while  we  watered 
our  horses  at  a  prairie-creek  the  sergeant  had  shot  a  pig  :  a 


COLIMA.  71 

sick  peccam  (wikl-hog)  he  preferred  to  call  it,  though  he 
trusted  that  its  flesii  might  be  eaten  with  impunity, — in  the 
absence  of  the  owner.  Only  Dr.  Rambert  was  out  of  luck  : 
in  unloading  the  baggage-wagon  the  men  had  dropped  lii- 
mess-box  and  converted  its  contents  into  a  mass  of  sniaslictl 
eggs  and  cohesive  flour;  and  as  lie  disapj)roved  of  pork 
and  all  stimulants,  including  tea  and  coffee,  he  had  to  bor- 
row a  handful  of  soda-crackers  from  the  cook  and  soak 
them  in  water  with  a  little  brown  sugar. 

"  Try  some  of  these  spare-ribs,  doctor :  be  jiersuaded," 
said  the  Boss:  "we  have  the  sergeant's  word  for  it  that  it 
isn't  pork,  but  venison." 

"  No,  thank  you,"  laughed  the  doctor :  "  I  should  soon 
be  a  great  deal  sicker  than  the  peccari.  I  used  to  puff  the 
temperance  movement  as  a  sanitary  gosjjcl  of  salvation," 
he  continued,  "  but  I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  its  chief 
purpose  is  defeated  unless  it  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a 
dietetic  reform." 

" That's  all  well  enough,"  said  the  Boss,  "  but  }()u  can 
make  up  your  mind  that  you're  not  going  to  starve  in  my 
camp.  Look  here,  boys :  doesn't  one  of  you  know  a  ranche 
or  something  hereabouts  where  we  could  raise  a  few  eggs 
or  a  potful  of  milk  ?" 

"  Yes,  there's  a  cabana  (log  shanty)  over  there  on  the 
creek,"  said  the  guide.  "  I  sent  one  of  your  men  down 
there  a  while  ago :  he  will  soon  be  back." 

Ten  minutes  after  one  of  the  Mexican  teamstei*s  returned 
from  the  cabana  with  a  hatful  of  leaf  tobacco  and  a  strin<!; 
of  onions.  "Mean  as  Jews!"  said  he.  "They  wouldn"i 
take  any  sugar :  I  had  to  give  them  money." 

"Do  you  know  if  they  sell  any  eggs?"  asked  the  Boss. 

"No,  sir,  but  they  iiave  chi/e  Colorado  and  milk,  and 
some  green  chil6." 


72 


SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


AN    I.NJJIA.N     KANCHO. 


"  Never  mind  the  chile.  Here" — handing  him  half  a 
dollar — "  take  this  pot  and  get  as  much  milk  as  they  will 
give  for  three  rials." 

We  had  to  wait  more  than  twenty  minutes  before  our 
delegate  returned  with  half  a  quart  of  skim-milk  and  a 
bunch  of  yellowish-green  leaves.  "  They  couldn't  make 
the  change,"  said  he,  "  so  they  send  you  some  chile  bianco 
(pepper-cress),  since  you  don't  like  the  other  kind." 

While  we  ate  our  supper  a  ragged  Mexican — probably 
the  proprietor  of  the  cabana  or  one  of  his  neighbors — 
emerged  from  the  darkness,  and,  upon  the  invitation  of  his 
countrymen,  took  a  seat  at  our  fireside. 


CO  LIMA.  73 

"  I  had  a  good  mind  to  make  him  eat  his  pepper-grass," 
muttered  the  Boss.  "Confound  his  impudence!  he  mi^^lil 
as  well  have  sent  us  a  handful  of  buh-ushas.  It  pnzzles 
me  what  he  wants  here." 

Our  visitor,  after  a  whispered  conference  with  one  of  the 
mestizo  wagoners,  at  last  solved  the  puzzle  by  drawing  a 
dirty  little  package  from  his  bosom  and  handing  it  to  his 
neighbor. 

"  Excuse  me,  gentlemen,"  said  the  teamster,  "  but  this 
paysano  wants  to  know  if  you  would  like  to  buy  a  cake  of 
fine  beeswax.  Nearly  two  pounds,  he  says, — enougli  for  a 
big  church-candle,  and  good  for  ton  years  of  f/racias  (pur- 
gatory-indulgences) at  the  very  least.  It's  first-rate  for 
harness-leather  too,  especially  in  rainy  weather,"  he  added 
after  a  pause  and  a  softo-voce  suggestion  from  Ids  prompter. 
"  Would  you  like  to  look  at  the  cake  ?" 

"Never  mind,"  said  the  Boss:  "tell  him  we  arc  fire- 
and  water-proof  here." 

The  paysano  nudged  his  interpreter,  and  exciianged  the 
package  for  a  larger  article. 

"  Maybe  you  would  prefer  a  panuelo/'  said  tlie  teamster, 
displaying  a  large  red  cotton  handkerchief.  "  liook  here  ! 
as  good  as  new,  and  lie  says  he  lets  you  have  it  at  less  than 
half  price,  Mr.  Davis." 

"  Take  that  rag  away,  or  I " 

"  Never  mind  him,"  said  the  doctor.  "  Listen  !  what's 
going  on  in  that  tree  up  there?  It  can't  be  birds  at  this 
time  of  the  night  ?" 

In  different  intervals  of  tlic  camp-hubbub  we  had  iieard 
a  shrill  twitter  from  the  summit  of  a  large  pinabde,  or 
mountain-larch  tree,  as  if  a  multitude  of  swalhnvs  woyv 
chirping  in  unison.  But  the  invisible  vocalists  iiad  either 
disagreed  on  some  private  business,  or  the  glare  of  the 


74  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

camp-fire  began  to  excite  them,  for  their  twittering  was  now 
intermingled  with  a  vehement  flutter  and  piercing  squeaks 
that  sounded  through  the  cackle  of  our  Mexicans  like  a 
boatswain's  whistle. 

'*  Goatsuckers  perhaps,  or  some  other  kind  of  night-bird." 

"  They  must  be  squirrels,"  said  the  Boss :  ''  birds  couldn't 
squeak  like  that." 

"  But  squirrels  can't  flutter :  they  must  be  bats  or  birds," 
insisted  the  doctor.  "  Let  me  get  over  there :  now  watch 
if  you  don't  see  them  fly  away."  He  picked  up  a  billet, 
and,  after  flinging  it  repeatedly  against  the  upper  branches, 
inspected  the  trunk  of  the  pinabete,  and  owned  himself 
puzzled  when  he  returned.  "  There  is  a  twenty-inch 
stratum  of  animal  excrements  under  that  tree,"  said  he. 
"  You  may  be  right,  after  all,  or  there  must  be  something 
else  up  there  besides  my  birds, — maybe  cats  or  monoschicos'' 
(tree-raccoons). 

"  They  are  murciegalos"  (a  large  kind  of  bats),  said  the 
guide,  guessing  at  the  context  of  the  English  conversation 
by  the  last  word :  "  that  tree  is  chuckful  of  them." 

"  What  makes  them  flutter  so  ?" 

"  I  don't  know,  sir :  they  keep  coming  and  going,  and 
some  of  them  are  as  large  as  wood-pigeons." 

But  the  fluttering  in  the  larch-tree  was  as  steady  as  the 
flopping  of  a  fan -ventilator ;  and  after  propounding  and 
rejecting  a  variety  of  other  theories,  we  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  upper  branches  of  the  pinabete  must  be  the 
flying-school  of  the  bat  colony,  where  their  youngsters  M'ere 
exercised  in  the  rhythmic  movement  of  their  membranous 
wings. 

Smaller  bats  and  a  swarm  of  moths  and  beetles  hovered 
about  the  camp,  and  in  the  light  of  our  fire  we  could  see 
night-rats  chasing  each  other  through  the  grass  and  flying- 


COLIMA.  75 

squirrels  flitting  from  tree  to  tree;  and  the  near  and  Un- 
voices of  tlie  forest  made  it  rather  doubtful  which  part  of 
the  twenty-four  hours  could  here  be  called,  par  excellence, 
the  wide-aAvake  time.  The  business  of  animated  nature  is 
carried  on  by  relays  in  the  tropics. 

We  had  almost  forgotten  our  Indian  visitor,  when  his 
interpreter  resumed  his  functions :  "  With  your  permission, 
caballeros,  this  paysano  asks  me  to  mention  that  the  panuelo 
can  be  used  as  a  neck-cloth.  It  is  a  patriotic  handkerchief, 
with  a  Mexican  eagle  on  it :  all  it  needs  is  a  good  washing, 
and  a  little  starch " 

"  Doctor,  you  had  better  attend  to  that  man  ;  he  must 
be  seriously  sick,"  laughed  the  Boss. 

"  A  little  starch,  caballeros,  would  make  it  as  good  as 
new,"  he  says;  "  and  you  needn't  pay  him  in  money  :  he'll 
take  it  out  en  alimento, — in  comestibles." 

"  Aha  !  we  are  coming  to  the  point  now.  Say,  Pancho/' 
to  the  guide,  "just  ask  him  what  he  wants,  or  he'll  auf- 
tioueer  his  breech-clout  next." 

"  I  needn't  ask  him,"  laughed  the  guide ;  "  he  wants  a 
little  ground  coifee,  sir." 

"That's  talking  sense,  now.  Here!  fill  him  this  pint 
cup.     Now  ask  him  if  he  wants  anything  else." 

"  He  says  h-e  is  very  sorry  to  trouble " 

"  Never  mind  ;  what  is  it  ?" 

"  A  little  bacon,  sir :  that's  all." 

"You  relieve  me.  Here  !  I  guess  this  chunk  will  grease 
his  way  to  heaven  if  he  should  lose  his  beeswax.  Give 
him  his  pepper-cress  back,  too." 

Cresses,  coffee,  and  bacon  were  wrapped  up  in  the 
patriotic  handkerchief,  and  our  Indio  hopped  off  rejoicing. 

"Indians  are  very  fond  of  cortcc,  sir,"  explained  the 
guide.     "  It  doesn't  grow  here,  and  tiiey've  got  no  money 


76 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


hardly.     There  was  no  necessity,  though,  for  giving  him 
as  much  as  all  that." 


COLIMA  PEASANTS. 


"Oh,  he's  welcome.  But  what's  the  reason  the  lazy 
loafers  can't  raise  their  own  bacon  ?  Don't  they  keep  any 
pigs  ?" 

"  It's  very  hard  to  raise  any  hogs  here,  sir.  The  Indians 
are  too  poor  to  keep  them  in  pens,  and  out  in  the  bush  they 


COLIMA.  77 

get  snapped  up  as  fast  as  you  turn  them  out.  Tlio  woods 
are  full  of  panthers  and  bears,  and  God  knows  how  many 
alligators  down  in  the  bottoms.  Besides,  they  are  lial)le  to 
get  sick,  and " 

"  To  be  mistaken  for  peccaris,"  suggested  the  doctor. 

"  Yes,  and  they  are  so  worried  with  vermin, — leeches 
and  bush-lice,  and  ticks  as  large  as  your  finger.  The  same 
with  chickens.  The  wild-cats  eat  them  in  the  bush  and 
the  pulgas  (sand-fleas)  in  the  stable ;  so  the  Indians  have 
to  live  on  vegetables  and  milk." 

"Why  don't  they  go  hunting,  if  the  woods  arc  so  full 
of  game?" 

"They  don't  dare  to,  sir;  they  might  run  across  the 
wrong  kind  of  game,  or  lose  their  way,  as  has  happened 
more  than  once.  You  have  no  idea  what  sort  of  tangle- 
wood  they  have  along  this  river;  the  best  hunter  can't  find 
his  way  without  a  trained  dog." 

"  There  are  no  hunters  at  all  here,  then  ?" 

"Only  a  Guero*  here  and  there,  but  very  few  of  the 
colored  people.  They  told  me  about  a  deaf-and-dumb 
Indian  lad  down  on  the  Balsas  River  who  used  to  wander 
about  the  woods  in  every  direction  for  days  together,  and 
somehow  always  found  his  way  back.  But  one  day  he 
came  flying  home  in  the  wildest  excitement,  and  gesticu- 
lated as  if  he  Avas  out  of  his  senses  altogether;  and  he 
would  hardly  trust  himself  out  of  the  rancho  after  that. 
They  think  he  must  have  met  a  renegron." 

The  backwoodsmen  of  Southern  Colima  believe  in  the 
existence  of  an  animal  which,  according  to  their  accounts, 


*  Guero,  in  Spanish  America  a  generic  name  for  all  non-Spanish 
Europeans.  The  European  Spaniards  are  called  Castcllanus,  but 
more  frequently  Gaehupines  (Tories). 


78  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

must  be  a  large,  black-haired  feline,  of  extraordinary 
strength  and  ferocity  and  of  strictly  nocturnal  habits.  The 
renegrun — blackamoor  [carrac/uar,  or  night-tiger,  the  In- 
dians call  him) — has  broken  into  adobe  cabins  and  torn 
their  inmates  into  pieces  before  a  puma  could  kill  a  cow; 
and  neither  a  bear  nor  a  jaguar  would  follow  a  fisherman 
and  capsize  his  boat  in  the  middle  of  the  stream,  which 
feat  is  ascribed  to  a  renegron  of  the  lower  Balsas.  In  warm 
nigrhts  the  rancheros  of  the  Colima  backwoods  have  often 
heard  a  peculiar  howl  which  they  could  not  mistake  for 
that  of  any  known  beast  of  prey,  and  seen  footprints  in 
the  river-sand  which  prove  that  the  jungles  harbor  a  brute 
whose  size  far  exceeds  that  of  the  puma.  They  have  found 
the  mangled  carcass  of  the  liormiguero,  or  large  ant-bear, 
an  aoimal  which  from  its  mastership  in  the  use  of  its  long 
claws  is  never  molested  even  by  the  jaguar.  The  jaguar 
also  visits  the  tierras  frias,  the  summit  regions  of  the  Sierra 
Madre,  while  the  voice  of  the  night-tiger  is  only  heard  in 
the  river-jungles. 

I  was  told  that  only  a  year  ago  the  appearance  of  a  car- 
raguar  in  the  Indian  wigwams  on  the  Rio  Pinas  created  a 
perfect  were-wolf  panic ;  and  the  description  of  the  brute, 
which  was  then  seen  and  heard  by  a  number  of  persons 
at  the  same  time,  though  differing  in  details,  agrees  in  the 
above-named  essentials  with  the  accounts  of  other  forest 
tribes.  But  the  renegron  sensations  are  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  the  Indian  settlements,  and  all  the  farmers  of  the 
Balsas  Valley  remember  the  tragedy  of  the  Cazador  Guero 
(the  "white  hunter"),  a  sturdy  ranchero  of  Portuguese 
descent,  who  had  different  rencontres  with  the  murderous 
night-walker,  and  at  last  sealed  the  truth  of  his  accounts 
with  his  life. 

Juan  Rivera  was  a  cattle-herder  and  trapper  of  the 


COLJMA.  79 

Val  cle  Mascalo,  near  San  Nicolas,  and  proprietor  of  a 
clumsy  but  very  efficient  old  trabitcco,  or  Portuo-uese  arnn-- 
musket,  which  had  freed  the  valley  from  so  many  wolves 
and  panthers  that  he  was  generally  known  as  El  Cazador, 
the  champion  hunter  of  the  Rio  Mascalo.  ximong  his 
trophies  was  a  large  shred  of  black  fur  torn  by  his  liounds 
from  the  hide  of  a  renegron,  Mdiich  their  master  had  crip- 
pled by  a  shot  through  the  haunches,  but  which  neverthe- 
less effected  its  escape  after  disabling  two  of  its  would-be 
captors ;  and  more  than  once  had  he  seen  the  sable  form 
of  a  "  night-tiger"  when  he  visited  his  beaver-traps  in  the 
morning  twilight.  But  since  the  inundation  of  the  Balsas 
bottoms,  in  1869,  his  ranche  had  been  more  frequently 
harried  by  other  enemies,  and  when  he  missed  a  fine  white 
milch-cow  he  ascribed  the  loss  to  a  puma  that  had  carried 
off  one  of  his  goats  a  month  before.  The  carcass  of  the 
cow,  minus  the  entrails  and  one  of  the  hind-quarters,  was 
found  near  a  salt-lick  in  the  river-jungles,  and  the  Cazador 
resolved  to  watch  the  next  night  and  pay  the  butcher  in 
heavy  currency.  He  loaded  his  trabucco  with  two  handsful 
of  chopped  lead,  and  started  at  sundown  for  the  salt-lick, 
accompanied  by  his  son  Miguel,  a  fearless  lad  of  fifteen 
or  sixteen,  who  had  lately  been  presented  with  a  siiot-gun 
by  the  Cazador's  father-in-law,  and  wanted  to  [)rove  himself 
worthy  of  the  gift. 

They  watched  behind  an  ambuscade  of  brushwood  till 
the  moon  rose  above  the  ridge  of  the  Sierra  de  Mascalo, 
when  Miguel  heard  a  low  rustling  in  the  neighboring 
thicket  and  the  click  of  the  trabucco  of  his  father,  who 
motioned  for  him  to  cock  his  own  piece  and  keep  very 
quiet.  After  waiting  in  dead  silence  for  ten  or  twelve 
minutes,  during  which  the  rustle  was  heiu'd  at  intervals, 
but  without  coming  any  nearer,  his  father  whispered  to 


80  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

him  to  stay  in  the  hidiug-place  and  keep  a  sharp  lookout, 
while  he  went  to  reconnoitre  the  jungle.  He  slipped  away, 
trabucco  in  hand,  and  Miguel  waited  nearly  a  quarter  of  an 
hour,  when  he  thought  he  saw  a  dark  form  creep  upon  the 
white  carcass,  which  began  to  shake  and  roll  in  a  way  that 
satisfied  him  that  the  long-expected  guest  had  commenced 
his  supper.  Bundles  of  brushwood  had  been  deposited 
along  the  ground  between  the  bait  and  the  ambuscade,  and 
Miguel  could  creep  near  enough  to  distinguish  the  whole 
outline  of  the  cow-killer,  and  thought  he  recognized  the 
broad  head  and  long  tail  of  a  puma.  His  father  had  warned 
him  not  to  fire  at  anything  larger  than  a  wolf,  for  his  piece 
was  only  loaded  with  buckshot ;  but  the  brute  presented  a  fair 
broadside, — the  left  side,  too, — not  a  pellet  could  miss,  and 
no  such  opportunity  might  ever  occur  again.  Miguel  raised 
his  shot-gun,  and,  resting  it  in  the  fork  of  a  bush  which 
completely  hid  him,  covered  the  ribs  of  the  supposed  puma 
a  little  back  of  the  left  shoulder,  and  pulled  the  trigger. 

He  remembers  that  he  dropped  his  piece  and  ran  off, 
screaming  for  help,  with  the  tiger  at  his  heels,  and  that  he 
was  awakened  from  a  stunning  fall  by  the  crunching  of  his 
shoulder-bones  and  a  fierce  tugging  at  his  shawl,  as  if  the 
murderer  was  trying  to  get  at  his  throat.  But  in  that 
moment  he  heard  his  father's  trabucco  go  off  like  a  thun- 
der-clap close  to  his  ears,  and  staggered  to  his  feet.  The 
brute  had  recoiled,  and  in  the  next  instant  received  a  blow 
por  tumhai'  un  toro  (that  would  have  felled  a  bull),  for  it 
splintered  the  butt  of  the  heavy  musket  like  a  walking- 
stick.  He  saw  his  father  swing  up  the  gun-barrel  for  a 
second  stroke,  but  before  it  descended  the  brute  had  made 
a  spring  at  his  legs,  and  in  the  next  second  had  him  pros- 
trate on  the  ground. 

"  Corre,  muchacho  !  por  tu  vida  !  por  tu  vida !"  yelled 


COLJMA.  81 

the  hunter  between  his  screams  of  agony, — "  Run,  my  boy, 
for  your  life  !     It's  a  renegr6u !" 

Miguel  stood  stupefied  for  a  minute,  and  even  the  death- 
shriek  of  his  father  brought  him  only  half  to  his  senses, 
for  he  dashed  into  the  woods  at  random,  and  arrived  at 
midnight,  not  at  his  mother's  ranche,  but  at  an  Indian  wig- 
wam on  the  river-shore,  where  a  former  vaqaero  of  his 
father's  bandaged  his  shoulder,  and  carried  him  home  on 
a  mule  the  next  morning.  The  boy's  excitement  and  his 
frightful  wounds  attested  the  truth  of  his  statements,  and 
before  night  the  battle-ground  was  visited  by  a  large  party 
of  armed  rancheros.  The  corpse  of  the  hunter  had  disap- 
peared, but  they  found  his  hat  and  shreds  of  his  clothes, 
and  the  two  guns.  On  a  spot  where  the  sods  were  torn  up 
by  the  rough-and-tumble  fight,  and  on  the  butt  of  the 
broken  musket,  they  discovered  tufts  of  coarse  black  hair, 
which  could  not  have  belonged  either  to  a  jaguar  or  a  cuguar, 
as  the  Indians  call  tlie  yellowish-gray  puma  or  Mexican 
lion. 

The  next  morning  we  resumed  our  journey  at  sunrise, 
and  passed  through  a  majestic  forest  of  pinabetes  {Larix 
montana),  which  covers  a  considerable  portion  of  the  lower 
foot-hills.  Even  coniferous  trees  do  not  monopolize  the 
soil  of  the  virgin  woods,  and  in  the  shade  of  dense  and 
widespreading  mountain-firs  many  bushes  and  arborescent 
shrubs — sassafras,  chrysosplenium,  or  monkey-pot  trees,  and 
white-blooming  oleanders — manage  to  dispense  with  sun- 
shine and  rain. 

But  the  selvas  bravas — the  primeval  forests  proper — 
begin  only  beyond  the  foot-hills  of  the  Sierra  de  Jalisco, 
where  the  erythrina  thorns  and  wood-myrtles  spread  their 
thickets  through  the  underbrush,  while  the  upper  foliage 


32  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

is  interlaced  with  a  network  of  wiklering  lianas.  The  road 
through  these  mountain  jungles  cost  the  vireys  millions  of 
dollars  and  untold  human  lives,  and  is  kept  in  tolerable 
repair  at  the  expense  of  the  Mazatlan  merchants ;  but  the 
overhanging  boughs  of  the  giant  trees  and  the  swaying 
tendrils  of  the  bush-ropes,  that  reach  out  like  eager  hands 
toward  the  bush-rope  tangle  on  the  other  side,  convey  the 
impression  that  if  the  road  was  left  to  its  fate  the  forest 
would  swallow  it  and  close  above  it  in  a  single  year.  Here 
and  there  a  creek  issues  from  a  dusky  archway  that  leads 
into  the  penetralia  of  the  tree-labyrinth  like  a  tunnel  into 
the  bowels  of  a  mountain.  The  arcades  of  the  wild  fig- 
trees,  too,  open  vistas  into  leafy  vaults  where  owls  and 
goatsuckers  commence  their  plaintive  cry  long  before  sun- 
set, and  the  gloom  of  the  deeper  recesses  is  unlike  anything 
we  see  in  our  densest  pine-groves  in  daytime. 

The  experience  of  a  lifetime  teaches  the  Jalisco  hunter 
to  distinguish  the  strange  animal  voices  of  these  mountain 
forests, — the  cries  of  yelping  birds  and  whistling  quad- 
rupeds, the  shrill  piping  of  the  squirrel-monkey  from  the 
note  of  the  crested  curlew,  and  the  hoarse  bark  of  the 
toucan  from  the  coughing  scream  of  the  tree-panther.  But 
the  remoter  depths  of  the  selvas  now  and  then  send  forth 
sounds  which  puzzle  even  the  natives,  like  voices  from  an 
unknown  world,  and  awaken  a  suspicion  which  the  theo- 
retical completeness  of  our  natural  histories  cannot  wholly 
remove, — namely,  that  the  Forest  has  kept  some  of  its 
secrets  as  well  as  the  Ocean. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    LAKE-REGION    OF    JALISCO. 

Yet  would  you  scale  those  mountains  if  you  knew 
That  they  enclose  the  vale  of  Paradise  ? — Camoens. 

When  we  reached  the  plateau  of  the  first — i.e.,  the  east- 
ern— range  of  the  double  mountain-chain  that  encloses  the 
lake-region  of  Jalisco,  the  valley  at  our  feet  was  shrouded 
by  a  misty  veil,  but  the  mountain-heads  had  doffed  their 
hood,  and  the  ridge  of  our  own  sierra  was  sunlit  for  many 
miles  ahead.  Our  road  meandered  between  boulders  of  cal- 
careous tufa,  but  along  the  centre  of  the  plateau  the  main 
stratum  had  cropped  out  in  a  ledge  of  massive  granite, 
which  approached  the  western  brink  at  different  j)()ints, 
forming  as  many  headlands  of  dark-gray  clifTs. 

"  We  could  see  the  lake  now  if  it  wasn't  for  that  wretched 
fog,"  observed  our  guide,  "but  I  guess  we  shall  have  the 
south  breeze  before  long  if  the  sun  gets  a  little  higher." 

We  saw  the  breeze  in  the  tree-tops  of  the  lower  moun- 
tain-regions before  it  reached  our  jilateau;  and  when  we 
approached  the  western  slope  the  next  time  the  cloud- 
masses  had  actually  got  under  way,  and  a  gap  here  and 
there  revealed  the  blue  forests  of  the  opposite  sierra,  and 
even  a  dazzling  though  only  momentary  glimpse  of  the 
great  lake  below.  But  when  we  reached  the  ti)ird  head- 
land our  caravan  stopped  and  the  teamsters  dismounted, 
and  one  by  one  our  men  stepped  up  to  the  brink  of  tlic 

projecting  cliffs.     The  veil  had  been  lifted. 

83 


84 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


The  river  at  our  feet  was  as  wide  and  quite  as  blue  as 
the  Susquehanna  at  Harrisburg ;  but  its  banks  were  not 
gentle  slopes,  but  savage  cliffs  rising  abruptly  into  tower- 
like foot-hills  and  mountain-walls  that  approached  the  re- 


LAKE    CHAPALA. 


gions  of  everlasting  snow.    But 

as  the  mountains  diverge  the 

\  river  widens  into  a  lake  whose 

shores  follow  the  zigzag  line 

of  the  foot-hills,  till,  in  the  far  west,  where  the  two  sierras 

part  at  right  angles  and  forever,  the  lake  expands  into  a 


THE  LAKE-REOION   OF  JALISCO.  ^5 

boundless  sea,  glittering  like  11  mirage  and  studded  witli 
hundreds  of  wood-covered  islands  that  fade  into  lig:ht- 
blue  hillocks  at  the  edge  of  the  horizon.  Just  below  oiu* 
feet  the  river  was  hidden  by  a  grove  of  balsam-firs,  tlie 
home  of  a  colony  of  black  herons,  and  the  open  lake  was 
crossed  and  recrossed  by  swarms  of  waterfowl,  Avhich,  at  a 
greater  distance,  seemed  to  drift  slowly  along  like  a  streak 
of  silver-white  clouds. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  world  in  general  knows  nothing 
of  its  greatest  men,  but  it  is  more  certain  that  men  in  gen- 
eral are  unacquainted  with  the  fairest  regions  of  their  world. 
I  am  almost  sure  that  there  are  towns  of  ten  thousand  in- 
habitants in  the  United  States,  and  much  larger  cities  in 
Western  Europe,  where  it  would  be  impossible  to  find  one 
man  who  ever  in  his  life  heard  even  the  name  of  Lake 
Chapala,  while  every  other  village  schoolmaster  in  Europe 
and  North  America  could  write  a  treatise  on  Lake  Jjeman 
or  Loch  Lomond.  Thousands  of  North  American  school- 
boys have  read  about  the  Lago  di  Como,  and  many  illiter- 
ate Western  farmers  know  that  the  Boden-See  is  drained  by 
the  Upper  Rhine,  but  not  two  men  in  a  cityful  of  European 
professors  would  be  able  to  say  if  the  fairy  lake  of  the  Rio 
Lerma  is  in  Mexico  or  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  Yet  this 
fair  laous  incognitus  is  ten  times  as  large  as  all  the  lakes  of 
Northern  Italy  taken  together,  and  forty  times  larger  than 
the  entire  canton  of  Geneva, — contains  diflercnt  islands 
whose  surface  area  exceeds  that  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and 
one  island  with  two  secondary  lakes  as  big  as  Loch  Lomond 
and  Loch  Katrine ! 

"  Well,  boys,"  observed  one  of  the  American  teamsters, 
"  it's  no  use  to  deny  the  truth  if  you  can  see  it  in  broad 
daylight :  this  beats  California." 

"  It  does  indeed,"  said  the  sergeant,  who  had  stot»d  at 

6 


8g  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

my  side  as  immovable  as  a  fugleman  ou  parade.  ''  Well, 
sir,  I  have  often  wondered  liow  tiiat  Maximilian  of  yours 
could  be  so  foolish  as  to  leave  all  those  castles  he  had  in 
the  old  country  and  come  here  and  get  himself  shot  like 
a  highway  robber ;  but  I  see  now  that  his  head  was  level 
enough,  after  all.  He  was  right  to  risk  his  life  for  a  country 
like  this." 

I  walked  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  clifip,  where  Dr. 
Rambert  stood,  hat  in  hand,  pensive  and  mute.  "  Que  dit 
Monsieur  le  Docteur?  You  wouldn't  find  such  a  lake  in 
California?  Don't  vou  feel  like  going  back  to  San  Luis, 
in  spite  of  your  heresy?" 

^'  Betourner  f  Yes,"  said  the  heretic,  turning  suddenly  and 
gimleting  me  with  his  keen  eyes — "  Yes,  I  do  feel  like  going 
back  a  long  way, — back  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  B.C. 
There  it  is,  my  friend :  that's  the  world  we  have  lost  for 
the  privilege  of  exchanging  a  pantheon  for  a  charnel-house, 
— a  company  of  happy  gods  for  an  assembly  of  tearful 
saints,  who  ruined  their  bodies  to  save  their  souls  and  ce 
monde-ei  pour  Vamour  du  del.  Have  you  ever  wished  to 
know  what  Southern  Europe  was  like  in  the  times  of 
Homer  and  Xenophon?  Olrcwnspice.  That's  Greece  with 
all  its  ancient  forests  and  happy  islands,  and  without  its 
modern  deserts  and  convents.  Take  a  good  look  at  it.  I 
have  an  unfortunate  talent  for  historical  clairvoyance,  a 
sort  of  inverted  second-sight,  and  I  can  see  it :  I  see  a 
Mediterranean  Paradise  getting  from  year  to  year  more 
desolate  and  Semetic,  but " 

"  Go  on." 

"  No,  I  won't.  The  guide  tells  me  we  are  going  to  have 
fried  salmon-trout  for  dinner,  and  I  don't  like  to  spoil  my 
appetite." 

The  forest  thickened  around  us  as  we  descended,  and 


THE  LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO.  §7 

before  we  reached  the  lake  our  road  slirank  to  a  narrow 
senda,  a  mere  trail  through  the  wild  tangle  wood.  The 
jungles  of  the  foot-hills,  our  guide  told  us,  swarm  with  game 
of  various  kinds  which  are  but  rarely  seen  in  the  alturas, 
as  the  natives  call  the  open  forests  of  the  summit- regions. 
In  the  matted  thickets  of  styrax  and  myrtle-wood  they 
find  safe  retreats  from  the  arrow  of  the  Indian  hunter ;  and 
even  the  panther  visits  their  haunts  only  at  midnight,  for 
fear  of  the  maranos,  or  wild  hogs,  that  charge  him  with 
headlong  fury  if  they  spy  his  freckled  hide  in  daytime. 

The  foliage  was  fairly  drenched  with  dew,  and  the 
morning  wind  diffused  a  medley  of  most  astonishing  odors; 
but  the  weather  was  already  too  warm  to  be  agreeable,  and 
when  we  emerged  from  the  bottom-jungles  opposite  a  peb- 
bly beach  our  mules  jostled  and  kicked  each  other  in  the 
press  for  precedence.  The  shores  of  Lake  Chapala  had  not 
borrowed  their  enchantment  from  the  distance  of  the  view. 
Sturdy  hemlocks  and  bignonia-trees  crowd  the  impertinent 
underbrush  out  of  the  way,  forming  natural  avenues  along 
the  beach,  which  slopes  so  gradually  that  the  water-line  is 
almost  everywhere  accessible.  The  water  is  steel-blue  and 
wonderfully  transparent,  in  spite  of  the  algffi  and  pond- 
weeds  that  weave  their  tangled  tendrils  wherever  the  bot- 
tom is  a  little  less  obdurate.  From  the  racks  of  an  open 
wagon  we  could  see  the  mountain-forests  of  the  opposite 
shore  glittering  with  a  moist  and  tremulous  light  and  a 
thousand  hues, — all  possible  shades,  variations,  and  combi- 
nations of  green  and  blue,  darkened  here  and  there  by  the 
gloom  of  a  mountain-gorge  or  the  floating  shadow  of  a 
cloud.  But  on  the  eastern  shore  the  sierra  presents  a 
mural  front  to  the  lake,  and  discharges  its  drainage  in  the 
form  of  dripping  springs  and  cascades,  tiny  rivulets  mostly, 
except  at  the  northeastern  extremity  of  a  triangular  bay, 


83  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

where  the  falls  of  the  Rio  Blanco  come  down  with  a  thun- 
der that  can  be  heard  and  felt  for  leagues  around.  A  mile 
below  the  falls  a  few  jagged  rocks  rise  from  the  water,  form- 
ing the  southern  outposts  of  the  motley  archipelago  of  cliffs 
and  islands  that  extends  along  the  eastern  shore  for  at  least 
sixty  English  miles.  A  meadow  of  pond-reeds  near  one 
of  the  raid-lake  islands  seemed  to  be  a  rendezvous  for  all 
possible  kinds  of  waterfowl.  Moor-hens,  surf-ducks,  fla- 
mingoes, a  long-legged  bird  that  looked  like  a  stork,  but 
might  be  a  species  of  white  heron,  coots,  and  black  divers, 
arrived  and  departed  from  and  in  all  directions  ;  and  a  little 
apart  from  the  rest  a  flock  of  gansas,  or  swamp-geese, 
disported  themselves  in  the  open  water, — grayish-white, 
long-necked  fellows  with  black  heads,  floating  at  times  in  a 
sleepy  way  till  some  old  gander  craned  his  neck,  and  then, 
as  if  suddenly  stirred  by  the  spirit  of  locomotion,  shot 
ahead  with  flopping  wings  for  a  hundred  yards  or  so,  and 
excited  the  whole  flock  into  a  fit  of  aquatic  gymnastics. 

"  How  would  this  suit  you  for  a  camping-ground,  cap- 
itan  ?"  asked  the  guide  when  we  passed  a  grassy  slope  at  the 
foot  of  a  styrax-coppice, 

"  There  isn't  much  tent-room  here,"  said  the  Boss.  "  I 
guess  I  shall  steer  for  that  mangrove-thicket  over  yonder : 
it  looks  like  a  nice  level  place.  When  are  you  going  to 
that  hacienda  you  were  talking  about  ?" 

"  If  the  geutlemeu  are  ready  we  had  better  go  now,"  said 
the  guide,  with  a  chronological  squint  at  the  sun  :  "  it's  very 
near  noon,  I  should  say.     Can't  you  manage  to  join  us?" 

"Not  now,"  said  the  Boss,  "but  I  guess  Billy  here 
could." 

The  clerk  assented,  and  we  crept  into  the  cabin  of  our 
prairie-schooner  to  supply  some  essential  defects  of  our 
toilet. 


THE   LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO.  gg 

"  Please  don't  go  out  too  for  that  way,"  cried  the  clerk 
wlien  he  jumped  down,  "or  else  we  sha'n't  be  able  to  find 
you  to-night." 

"Don't  you  fret,"  shouted  the  cook:  "you'll  know  UK- 
place  by  the  smell  if  you  don't  see  the  camp-fire :  we  are 
going  to  fry  all  those  Dutch  bananas  of  yours  while  you  are 
gone,"  meaning  the  bologna  sausages,  of  which  the  young- 
gentleman  kept  a  full  stock  on  hand. 

"  How  far  is  that  hacienda  from  here,  anyhow  ?"  asked 
the  doctor  after  we  had  followed  the  winding's  of  a  meado\\- 
brook  for  some  time. 

"  We  are  on  the  hacienda  even  now,"  replied  the  guide, 
"  but  the  dwelling-house — the  Casa  Morena,  as  they  call  it 
— is  about  half  a  league  from  those  mango-trees  over  there. 
That  orchard  has  grown  into  a  regular  forest  with  all  the 
new  trees  they  have  set  out,  and  they  are  still  at  it." 

"  You  have  been  here  before,  it  seems  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir,  many  a  time ;  and  the  Scfior  Vidas  is  an  old 
friend  of  mine:  he  used  to  live  in  Queretaro,  and  I  knew 
him  a  long  while  before  he  ever  came  here." 

"  He  has  only  purchased  this  place  lately,  has  he  ?" 

"  He  doesn't  own  it,  sir,  but  1  guess  he  will  before  long : 
the  proprietor,  old  Mr.  Martinez,  is  his  father-in-law,  and 
lets  him  boss  the  place  as  much  as  he  likes.  He  might  as 
well  be  dead  :  he  has  never  a  word  to  say." 

"  Bedridden,  1  suppose  ?" 

"Lord  bless  you,  no,  sir!  he  could  ride  a  wild  buffalo. 
But  he  is  hardly  ever  home:  he's  fishing  i'rom  morning  till 
night.  That's  all  he  cares  for;  and  I  really  think  he  could 
beat  a  fish-otter  at  its  own  game." 

The  Casa  Morena  was  a  two-story,  flat-roofed  stone  house, 
constructed  of  a  kind  of  brown  syenite  of  great  durability, 
but  of  a  color  that  gave  the  stones  the  appearance  of  over- 


90  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

OTOwn  bricks :  the  house,  the  corral^  and  half  a  dozen  out- 
buildings  were  enclosed  by  a  citron-hedge  whose  flowers 
shone  like  drifted  snow  against  the  background  of  dark- 
green  mango-trees. 

The  senor  was  not  at  home,  but  the  housekeeping  mestiza 
informed  us  that  she  expected  him  for  dinner,  and  promised 
us  a  superlative  potful  of  trucha  eon  papas — broiled  trout 
with  potato-chips — if  we  would  tarry  a  little  while.  In 
the  mean  time  one  of  the  stable-boys  volunteered  to  show 
us  the  sights  of  the  hacienda, — the  flower-plots,  the  chapel, 
a  pyramid  of  alligator  skulls,  the  Shanghai  cock  recently 
imported  from  Mazatlan,  a  little  wind  coffee-mill,  and  the 
skeleton  of  a  big  swamp-boa.  But  a  greater  curiosity,  at 
least  to  our  eyes,  was  the  tame  porcasso,  or  hog-tapir,  the 
fattest,  laziest,  and,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  tree- 
alligator,  the  ugliest  habitant  of  the  Tierra  Caliente,  and 
the  first  of  his  tribe  I  had  ever  seen  in  a  state  of  captivity. 
He  was  confined  in  a  pig-pen  of  solid  construction,  though 
in  his  present  condition  he  seemed  hardly  able  to  use  his 
legs  for  migratory  purposes.  When  we  approached  the  pen 
he  surveyed  us  with  a  misanthropic — nay,  pessimistic — ex- 
pression of  his  jaundiced  eye,  and  even  when  the  stable-boy 
oifered  him  an  armful  of  water-cabbage  he  turned  away 
with  a  weary  look  and  grunted  protest  against  the  vanities 
of  this  world.  But  by  and  by  the  aroma  of  the  succulent 
vegetable  seemed  to  revive  his  secular  propensities :  the 
wrinkles  of  his  proboscis  began  to  work ;  he  turned  his 
head  gradually,  and  with  crescendo  sniffs  eyed  the  garbage 
with  the  mien  of  a  connoisseur,  and  suddenly  broke  forth 
into  an  exultant  snort  that  contrasted  painfully  with  the 
moral  tone  of  his  previous  utterances.  I  think  there  were 
about  sixteen  pounds  of  cabbage,  which  vanished  in  as 
many  seconds,  and  after  smacking  his  chops  meditatively 


THE  LAKE-REGION   OF  JALISCO. 


91 


for  two  or  three  minutes  he  raised  his  head  to  apply  for  a 
second  instalment.     The  functions  of  his  mental  apparatus 


K\  v-^    ^ 


THE    HOG-TAPIR. 


seemed,  indeed,  quite  as  sluggish  as  his  visible  movements. 
The  stable-boy  handed  him  another  bundle,  larger  and 
heavier  than  the  first,  but,  after  allowing  him  to  devour  a 
hatful  or  so,  he  jerked  the  rest  away,  leaving  him  nothing 
but  a  few  scattered  leaves.  While  the  tapir  gobbled  these 
leaves  he  kept  his  eye  on  the  main  stake,  but  a  full  minute 
elapsed  before  he  realized  the  magnitude  of  his  bereave- 
ment. When  the  truth  flashed  upon  him  it  seemed  to 
strike  his  brain  like  an  electric  shock  :  he  jumped  around 
as  if  possessed  with  all  the  hog-goblins  of  Gadara,  snapped 
at  his  own  buttocks,  and  fin;dly  stood  still,  leaned  his  head 


92  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

l^ack,  and  uttered  screams  that  continued  for  a  long  while 
after  his  property  had  been  restored. 

A  bell  sounded  from  the  kitchen-window,  and  we  re- 
turned to  the  casa.  "You  must  excuse  my  appearance, 
gentlemen,"  said  the  senor  when  he  came  in,  wet  and  mud- 
bespattered.  "  I  have  a  lot  of  Chechemeca  Indians  at  work 
in  the  swamp  getting  the  vanilla-crop  in ;  and  you  know 
you  cannot  trust  them  round  the  corner :  you  might  as  well 
rely  on  a  troop  of  monkeys  to  behave  in  your  absence.  Had 
the  cabal  leros  a  pleasant  trip  ?" 

"Yes,  sir,  from  the  moment  we  sighted  your  mountains," 
said  Dr.  Rambert ;  "  but  the  pleasure  will  end  here  too : 
it's  hard  on  a  man  to  have  to  crawl  back  to  the  humdrum 
Tierra  Caliente  after  having  been  in  heaven." 

"  How's  the  old  man  ?"  inquired  the  guide. 

"  Thanks :  oh,  he  is  all  right, — still  at  it,  of  course," 
laughed  the  senor :  "  he  wouldn't  care  for  any  other  heaven 
either  unless  he  could  take  his  angle  along. — Well,  help 
yourselves,  caballeros,  and  excuse  me  for  a  few  minutes." 

When  Don  Vidas  returned  in  his  black  jaqueta  we  found 
him  "  a  gentleman  in  dress  and  address."  He  had  been  an 
alcalde  of  the  court  of  session  in  Queretaro,  and  could  not 
only  read,  but  had  evidently  put  that  accomplishment  to 
some  account. 

"  I  understand  my  honored  guests  are  versed  in  the  med- 
ical sciences,"  said  he,  after  dinner,  "and  I  have  often 
wished  for  an  opportunity  to  hear  a  competent  verdict  upon 
the  value  of  a  hot  spring  in  this  neighborhood.  Would 
you  like  to  take  a  stroll  down  to  the  creek  ?" 

We  took  our  hats,  and  the  clerk,  who  had  only  under- 
stood the  last  two  or  three  words,  followed  our  example. 

The  thermal  springs  of  this  region  deserve  a  hotter 
name.    The  weather  was  so  warm  that  we  envied  the  broad- 


THE  LAKE-REGION   OF  JALISCO.  93 

brimmed  sombrero  of  our  companion,  but  in  spite  of  the 
heat  and  dryness  of  the  atmosphere  Mr.  Vidas's  little  spa 
smoked  like  a  Canadian  waterfall  on  a  cold  winter  morning. 
Where  it  joined  the  creek,  and  for  some  distance  below, 
the  water  emitted  curling  little  wreaths  of  steam  that  soon 
dissolved  in  the  upper  air,  but  to  our  surprise  we  noticed 
the  same  vapor  in  the  creek-water  above  the  junction.  The 
mineral  thermae  proper  were  farther  up,  explained  the 
seiior,  and  he  took  us  to  a  j)lace  where  a  number  of  tiny 
fountains  welled  up  from  a  smoking  puddle  at  the  edge  of 
the  creek. 

"Whew!  that's  a  sulphur  spring,  it  can't  be  denied," 
said  Dr.  Rambert,  rubbing  his  nose.  "  Very  popular  with 
the  natives,  I  dare  say, — miraculous  cures  effected,  lepers 
restored  to  health,  etc.,  eh  ?" 

"  Well,  I  don't  know,"  laughed  the  senor.  "  It's  a  popu- 
lar maxim,  though,  that  whatever  tastes  bad  must  be  healthy ; 
and  if  that's  true  the  sanative  efficacy  of  this  puddle  must 
be  preternatural  indeed :  it  tastes  like  a  mixture  of  rotten 
eggs  and  turpentine.  The  Indians  call  it  the  pestazotc^ 
(stink-hole) — "your  nose  testifies  to  the  fitness  of  the  term, 
I  suppose — but  they  worship  it,  nevertheless,  though  it  all 
but  suffocates  them.  1  have  often  seen  them  take  a  mouth- 
ful and  wait  to  let  it  cool  off,  and  then  swallow  it  with  a 
sort  of  resignation ;  but  the  moment  they  get  it  down  they 
explode  like  fermenting  beer-bottles,  and  never  stoj)  sneezing 
and  hacking  for  hours  together.  A  clerical  friend  of  mine 
calls  it  the  '  Fountain  of  Eternal  Coughs.'  It's  no  eternal 
fountain,  though,  I'm  afraid :  the  creek  keeps  encroaching 
on  its  left  bank,  and  will  swamp  the  spring — maybe  both 
of  them — before  long,  unless  I  can  stop  the  mischief  with 
a  dike  or  something." 

"  Save  the  lower  spring,  then,  the  one  without  brimstone. 


94  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

A  warm  spring,  sir,  is  a  great  blessing  in  winter-time, — as  a 
bath  I  mean,  not  as  a  beverage." 

'^  That's  what  I  often  suspected,"  said  the  seilor.  "  If  J 
imderstand  you  right,  you  mean  to  say  that  it  doesn't  matter 
much  whether  this  puddle  gets  swamped  or  not  ?" 

"  Not  one  straw.  If  that  stuff  were  healthier  than  pure 
water,  the  Creator  would  have  covered  the  face  of  the  earth 
with  pestazotes.  The  truth,  seiior,  is  what  you  hinted  at  a 
while  ago :  that  people  in  general  have  an  unhappy  rever- 
ence for  out-of-the-way  things, — hartshorn,  miracles,  cod- 
liver  oil,  mandragora,  and  such  like.  If  some  wretch  should 
discover  a  spring  of  sulphuric  acid,  he  would  be  hailed  as 
a  benefactor  of  mankind.  Thousands  of  cures  ascribed  to 
our  mineral  springs  are  in  reality  effected  by  open-air  exer- 
cise, climatic  influences,  music,  and  other  incidental  ad- 
vantages of  a  watering-place,  but  especially  by  the  dietetic 
restrictions  which  are  commonly  involved  with  a  sentence  of 
sulphur-water.  And  the  power  of  faith  can  even  dispense 
with  such  adjuncts." 

"  Our  Indians  are  saved  by  faith  then,"  said  Don  Vidas, 
"  for  they  certainly  dispense  with  dietetic  restrictions.  I 
have  seen  them  put  down  potsful  of  sulphur-water  and 
broiled  eels,  turn  about,  or  a  greasy  mess  of  cabbage  with 
lard  oil  and  red  pepper.  Their  digestive  apparatus  is  dif- 
ferent from  ours,  though.  There's  a  chap  on  this  farm  who 
can  devour  an  arroba  of  sweet  potatoes  with  pansful  of 
bacon-fat  and  onions  at  a  single  session ;  and  my  Cheche- 
mecas  have  regular  eating-matches  that  last  four  or  five 
hours,  and  do  not  prevent  them  from  walking  as  many 
leagues  the  same  night,  puny  monkeys  as  they  are.  My 
only  explanation  is  this:  they  are  strict  teetotalers;  fer- 
mented and  distilled  drinks  are  almost  unknown  in  their 
settlements ;  and  I  have  often  thought  that  a  stout  white 


THE  LAKE-REOION  OF  JALISCO.  95 

man  or  an  African  could  digest  almost  anything  if  lie  would 
just  leave  alcohol  alone." 

As  we  sauntered  back  to  the  casa  the  seilor  informed  us 
that  he  had  to  meet  a  cattle-dealer  in  the  village  of  Barrios 
that  night,  but  that  he  would  return  in  the  course  of  the 
next  morning,  at  all  events  before  noon.  "  In  the  mean 
time,"  said  he,  "  the  house  and  the  hacienda  are  at  your 
disposition,  and  I  think  you  will  find  the  proprietor  a  man 
of  excellent  good-humor,  though  the  same  cannot  be  said 
of  his  manners." 

"What  in  the  name  of  witchcraft  can  this  be?"  whis- 
pered the  doctor  when  we  were  alone  with  our  guide, — "  this 
unearthly  smell,  1  mean  :  it  gets  worse  every  minute." 

The  guide  chuckled  :  "  It's  the  vanilla,  sefior ;  they  have 
just  brought  a  load  of  fresh-cut  in,  and  they  are  spreading 
it  on  the  veranda.  It  can't  be  done  in  tlie  hot  sun — it 
would  spoil  all  the  aroma,  you  know — so  they  have  to  wait 
for  a  dry  night ;  and  about  an  hour  before  sunset  is  the 
right  time  to  spread  it." 

"  It's  the  right  time  for  us  to  be  oflP,  then,"  laughed  the 
doctor :  "  let's  go.  Yes,  come  on  :  here  they  bring  the 
second  load." 

"  Me  too  ?"  asked  the  guide. 

"  If  you  like.  On  second  thought,  no :  you  had  better 
stay  here,  my  friend,  till  the  old  gent  comes  home,  and 
make  up  an  excuse  for  us,  like  a  gootl  fellow." 

Flocks  of  white  herons  were  returning  to  their  roosts  in 
the  mountain-forests,  and  the  reed-frogs  struck  up  tlie  pre- 
lude of  their  evening  concert  when  we  reached  the  lake- 
shore.  On  an  old  pasture  at  the  foot  of  the  hacienda  the 
children  of  the  farmers  and  day-laborers  were  at  play  with 
that  vociferous  mirth  which  only  the  evening  hour  awakens 
in  boys  and  rooks.     The  little  Indians  looked  at  us  with 


96  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

shy  curiosity,  but  their  less  naked,  senii-Caucasiau  playmates 
gathered  around  us  when  they  saw  us  stop  near  a  group  of 
guava-trees ;  and  they  had  no  sooner  understood  that  we 
wished  to  get  some  of  the  madresdvas  (yellow  honeysuckles) 
in  one  of  the  top  branches  than  six  or  seven  of  them 
swarmed  up  the  tree  like  squirrel-monkeys  and  pelted  us 
with  a  golden  shower  of  blossoms  and  flowery  tendrils. 
When  we  left  we  treated  them  to  a  penny  scramble,  while 
their  comrades  were  chasing  a  tame  antelope  around  the 
pasture  or  rolling  in  the  dry  grass  in  a  very  ecstasy  of  frolic 
and  exuberant  health. 

"AVasn't  poor  Hoi ty  right?"  said  the  doctor;  and  then 
muttered,  as  to  himself,  "  A  man  might  live  here  like  a 
wood -god  and  forget  that  there  are  such  things  on  earth  as 
tobacco-smoke  and  an  anti-natural  religion." 

Before  we  sighted  the  mangrove  timber  the  guide  overtook 
us  and  informed  me  that  Don  Martinez — "  the  governor," 
as  he  called  him — would  join  us  at  the  camp  to-night. 

"  So  he  was  not  offended  at  our  leaving  the  casa  ?" 

"  Not  in  the  least.  I  told  him  you  belonged  to  a  sect  of 
Protestants  that  have  to  be  baptized  every  Saturday  night, 
and  he  was  determined  to  see  the  fun." 

"  AVhy,  what  made  you  tell  such " 

"Don't  get  mad,  now:  let's  hurry  up,  and  I'll  tell  him 
you  have  just  got  through  when  he  comes." 

After  sunset  the  clerk  had  repeatedly  called  my  attention 
to  the  gigantic  bats  that  steered  their  fitful  flight  through 
the  trees  at  the  lake-shore,  and,  finding  our  cook  still  at 
work,  I  took  my  shot-gun  and  sauntered  along  the  beach 
in  the  vain  hope  of  bagging  one  of  the  prodigies  before 
pitch-dark.  On  my  return  I  found  my  friends  squatting 
around  the  camp-fire,  and  in  their  midst  an  old  gentleman 
whom  I  should  have  taken  for  a  Hollander  if  I  had  met 


THE  LAKE- REGION   OF  JALISCO.  97 

him  in  a  seaport-town.  He  shook  my  hand  without  stirring 
from  his  seat,  and  even  without  interrupting  his  conversa- 
tion witli  Dr.  Rambert,  who,  knowing  his  hobby,  liad 
ah'eady  got  him  astraddle  and  was  b'stening  to  an  account 
of  his  recent  piscatorial  exploits. 

"  Gar-])ike,"  said  he,  "  do  not  spawn  in  this  lake, — they 
come  from  below, — but  I  caught  an  old  slick-tailed  one  this 
morning  whom  I've  seen  for  weeks  and  weeks,  and  who 
knew  me  too  well  to  try  any  of  his  tricks  on  me  when  I 
pulled  him  home.  It  made  me  laugh  to  see  the  way  the 
dog  winked  at  me." 

"  I  hear  this  lake  is  full  of  alligators  ?"  said  the  Boss. 

"  No,  no :  we  can't  complain.  My  father  used  to  hunt 
them  unmercifully,  but  I  have  been  living  here  nigh  on 
sixty  years,  and  I  do  not  think  they  ever  did  me  sixty 
shillings'  worth  of  damage.  They  stick  to  the  south  side, 
where  there  are  plenty  of  swamps,  and  few  people  living  : 
we  shouldn't  know  there  were  any  about  if  we  didn't  hear 
them  splash  in  the  night-time." 

"  Do  they  ever  come  ashore  ?" 

"  Only  in  the  rutting  season  :  in  March  and  April  I  have 
seen  the  males  chase  each  other  across  the  beaver-meadows 
near  Cape  Ranas.  There's  one  exce})tion,  though,"  he 
continued  :  "  whenever  one  of  those  big  lagartos^'  (caymans) 
"comes  up  from  the  coast-swamps  our  alligators  combine 
against  him  and  run  him  down,  codte  que  coute,  though  they 
should  have  to  follow  him  through  the  jungles  and  up 
stream  for  miles.  I  went  down  to  San  Marica  about  five 
years  ago,  and  near  the  ford  I  met  some  countrymen  flying 
up  the  road  almost  out  of  their  senses ;  and  they  told  me 
there  was  a  snake  in  the  creek  as  long  as  my  })icket-fen('e, 
— i.e.,  about  sixty-five  yards.  I  told  them  tliey  nuist  be 
crazy,  but  when  I  got  down  to  the  creek  I  thought  there 


98  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

must  be  something  in  it, — not  in  the  creek  only,  but  in  the 
snake-story.  For  a  considei-able  distance  up  and  down  the 
opposite  shore  the  water  was  in  motion  as  if  an  everlast- 
ingly long  snake  kept  turning  over  and  over,  and  when  it 
came  a  little  nearer  it  struck  me  all  at  once  that  it  was  quite 
natural  for  those  Indians  to  run  away.  But  before  I  turned 
my  horse  I  happened  to  notice  that  the  critter  seemed  to 
have  three  or  four  tails,  and  when  I  watched  closer  I 
thought  it  must  have  ut  least  a  dozen.  And  what  do  you 
think  it  was?  A  string  of  alligators  after  a  lagarto  that 
must  have  led  them  a  six-mile  chase  from  the  lake  till  they 
got  him  up  to  the  rapids ;  and  there  they  had  him  foul, — 
a  current  like  a  mill-race  ahead,  steep  banks  on  both  sides, 
and  no  place  to  hide.  I  can't  say  if  they  killed  him  or  not, 
but  I  know  that  somebody  got  hurt  in  that  corner,  for  after 
they  left  the  water  was  as  red  as  a  puddle  behind  a  butcher- 
shop.  A  lagarto  can  go  against  the  stream  like  a  surf-duck, 
but  the  fool  should  not  have  run  into  a  little  creek  with  a 
cul-de-sac:  if  he'd  gone  up  the  Lerma,  he  might  have 
laughed  at  all  the  alligators  in  North  America." 

"  What  is  your  theory  about  the  Rio  Lerma,  senor  ? 
Where  do  you  think  it  comes  from  ?" 

"  From  a  greater  distance  than  any  of  our  sierra-creeks, 
— that's  all  I  am  sure  about, — for  it  isn't  possible  that  it 
could  collect  all  that  water  on  this  side  of  the  juntura'^  (the 
junction  of  the  two  mountain-ranges) ;  "  so  I  think  the  In- 
dians were  right,  after  all.  The  Indian  chiefs  of  this  valley 
told  the  Spaniards  that  the  Rio  Lerma  is  fed  by  subterra- 
nean affluents,  by  creeks  that  take  their  rise  in  the  Orgas 
Mountains  beyond  the  sierras,  and  that  the  limestone-caves 
near  Toluca  are  the  upper  end  of  these  tunnels.  I  suppose 
you  have  heard  of  the  great  mica-cave  near  Temascaltepec, 
where  you  can  walk  for  half  a  league  alongside  of  a  deep 


THE  LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO.  <)i) 

river  that  goes  to  nobody  knows  where  ?  Well,  the  FiidiaDs 
have  a  tradition  that  a  Tohica  chieftain  once  entered  that 
cave  with  sixty  warriors,  and  iisked  which  one  of  tiieni  had 
pluck  enough  to  jump  into  a  canoe  and  commit  himself  to 
the  current  of  the  cave-river  ?  Fifteen  or  twenty  volun- 
teered, so  he  made  them  draw  lots,  and  it  fell  to  a  naked 
spearman  of  his  body-guard.  The  chief  gave  him  his  red 
mantle  and  a  cargo  of  provisions,  and  the  man  pushed  off. 
They  say  the  current  carried  him  to  the  farther  end  of  the 
cave  and  into  tlie  interior  of  the  mountain,  and  that  was 
the  last  they  saw  of  him.  But  two  months  after  his  canoe 
and  the  red  mantle  were  found  near  Benjamo  on  tlie  Rio 
Lerma." 

"I  have  heard  of  that  cave,"  said  Dr.  Rambert;  "and 
I'm  sorry  w^e  did  not  take  a  look  at  it  when  we  pa.s.sed 
through  Toluca.  Have  you  ever  visited  that  neighborhood, 
seilor?" 

"  No,  sir :  I've  passed  my  life  in  this  State,"  said  the  ha- 
ciendero, — "  never  was  farther  east  than  Celaya.  I  haven't 
even  seen  the  ocean  yet,  though  it  is  only  forty  leagues  to 
San  Bias,  and  I  guess  there  are  greater  wonders  in  the  sea 
than  a  little  underground  water-course.  Tell  me,  caballeros, 
— though  you  may  laugii  at  me  for  repeating  such  stutf, — 
is  it  true  what  I've  been  told  once  and  again,  that  there  ai-e 
luciernas"  (lightning-bugs)  "in  the  sea  that  live  under  water 
the  year  round  and  don't  get  extinguished  ?  It's  a  sailor's 
yarn,  isn't  it  ?" 

" Not  quite,"  answered  the  doctor:  "you  can  see  them 
in  warm  nights,  but  only  where  there  are  millions  of  them 
together,  and  even  then  it's  only  a  green  shimmer.  Tlie 
sea  doesn't  extinguish  them,  but  nobody  would  miss  them 
if  it  did  ;  and  who  could  say  that  of  yoiu-  lueiernas  ?  Just 
look  at  them,  all  of  you !" 


100  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

The  Mexican  lightning-bugs  seemed,  indeed,  to  have 
turned  out  with  all  their  colleagues  and  relatives  that  night. 
Fire-flies,  fire-midges,  and  fire-bluebottles  drifted  and 
dodged  through  the  branches  of  the  mangrove-thicket,  the 
skirts  of  the  forest  behind  us  scintillated  like  a  reflection  of 
the  Galaxy,  and  even  the  scattered  trees  in  the  valley  could 
be  distinguished  by  a  blaze  of  circling  sparks.  The  lake- 
shore  too  glittered  with  intermittent  stars,  mere  luminous 
points  at  a  greater  distance,  but  in  the  canebrake  on  the 
south  shore  a  larger  light  flared  up  every  now  and  then — 
like  a  sudden  flash,  rather  than  like  the  continued  flicker  of 
a  will-o'-the-wisp.  What  could  it  be  ?  Not  the  tropical 
Ian  tern- fly,  which  I  had  seen  in  Yucatan  and  Panama,  and 
again  near  Tampico,  and  which  nowhere  exceeded  the  bril- 
liancy of  the  common  luciernas  more  than  two  or  three 
times,  while  the  flashes  in  the  canebrake  fairly  illuminated 
the  reeds  for  yards  around.  Was  it  an  electric  phenomenon, 
or  what  in  Florida  they  call  "  bush-fire"  ? 

"  I  couldn't  tell  you,"  said  the  planter.  "  I  have  often 
seen  it  on  the  beaver-meadows  near  the  hoca,  and  sometimes 
in  the  vanilla-swamps,  but  never  near  enough  to  find  out  if 
it's  a  living  thing  or  something  else, — something  the  heretics 
don't  believe  in.  Say,  Coco,"  turning  to  his  Indian  attend- 
ant, "just  look  at  those  bulrushes:  do  you  see  that  light? 
Wait  a  moment :  there  it  goes  again.  Now,  what  would 
you  call  that  ?" 

"  That's  a  hiz  huanalj"  said  Coco,  combining  a  Spanish 
noun  with  a  Chechemeca  attributive. 

"A— what?" 

"  A  fiiego  huanal,"  sticking  to  the  doubtful  adjective. 

"  Describe  it :  is  it  an  animal  or  something  else?" 

"  Si,  senor." 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?     Is  it  alive?" 


\ 


THE  LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO.  IQl 

"  Yes,  sir,  but — "  after  some  reflection — "  it  liides  in  tlie 
daytime." 

"  What  is  it  like  ?     A  bird,  a  bug,  or  a  fish  ?" 

"  Oh  no,  sir." 

"  What,  then  ?     Can  it  fly  ?" 

"  Yes,  but  not  like  a  bird." 

"Describe  it,  then,  can't  you?     What  is  it,  anyhow?" 

"'  A  luz  huanal,  seiior." 

We  gave  it  up.  The  art  of"  definition  does  not  belong 
to  the  primitive  faculties  of  the  human  mind. 

"  Whatever  it  may  be,"  said  Don  Martinez,  "  1  iiavc 
never  seen  it  after  December,  but  often  in  August,  and 
generally  towards  midnight  or  early  in  the  morning.  But 
that  reminds  me  it's  getting  late,  at  least  for  people  who 
have  crossed  the  sierra  this  morning.  I  sliouldn't  have 
bothered  you  anyhow,  I  suppose,  but  you  have  no  idea  Iidn*' 
much  I  should  like  to  have  you  stay  here  for  a  couple  of 
weeks.  My  neighbors  are  mostly  Indians  and  hog-tapirs, 
and  it's  so  rarely  we  see  any  strangers  in  this  valley  !  Well, 
it's  my  own  fault  too.  Fifteen  years  ago  a  French  c(jm- 
pany  wanted  to  build  a  railroad  from  here  to  San  Diego, 
and  I  was  against  it,  like  every  other  fool  in  the  country, 
because  I  thought  we  might  as  well  do  tiie  job  ourselves 
and  pocket  the  profits.  Now  we  can  wait  a  long  while  for 
another  chance  like  that.  Mexico  is  ruined,  and  the  French 
seem  to  have  got  rid  of  their  loose  change  during  that  last 
war." 

"We'll  attend  to  that,  seiior,"  said  I:  "my  friend  hnv 
will  be  in  California  this  day  week,  and  he  will  take  order- 
for  any  desired  number  of  railroails.  There's  nlrnty  of 
time:  we  sha'n't  start  before  nine  a.m.  t(»-morrow." 

"To-morrow!"  cried  the  Mexican.  "  iSautissima !  you 
are  not  going  to  travel  on  Sunday,  are  you  ?" 

7 


102  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"  Yes,  they  are,"  said  the  guide.  "  I  told  you  they  were 
heretics :  they  always  travel  on  Sunday,  especially  on 
Easter-Sunday  and  Whit-Sunday  :  it's  their  merriest  day  in 
the  week." 

"  Don't  believe  it,  senor,"  said  Dr.  Rambert :  "  it  will 
be  a  sad  day  for  us  if  we  have  to  bid  farewell  to  Lake 
Chapala.  But,  as  my  friend  says,  there's  a  remedy  for  it : 
we'll  build  you  a  railroad  down  here  at  our  earliest  con- 
venience and  invade  you  with  an  army  of  commercial  trav- 
ellers. It  isn't  fair  that  you  should  have  a  Paradise  all  to 
yourself." 

"  All  right !"  laughed  the  planter.  "  I'll  let  you  go  on 
those  terms,  even  on  Sunday.  But  before  you  leave  the 
lake  you  ought  to  baptize  that  guide  of  yours :  he's  in  need 
of  it,  I'm  afraid." 

We  went  to  our  tent.  A  night-chill  had  stolen  upon  the 
air,  and  the  candle  in  the  doctor's  field-lantern  was  flicker- 
ing rather  low  in  the  socket,  but  before  we  put  it  out  we  re- 
turned to  a  little  hillock  behind  the  tent  to  have  one  more 
look  at  the  great  mountain-lake.  The  camp  all  around  was 
fast  asleep,  and  so  still  that  we  could  hear  the  low  creaking 
of  the  tent-poles  and  the  half  bark  of  a  dreaming  dog  whose 
soul  was  perhaps  roaming  through  the  thickets  of  the  al- 
turas.  The  camp-fires  and  stick-torches  had  burned  down 
to  the  last  chip,  but  the  deepest  night  was  already  past. 
Above  the  heights  of  the  Sierra  de  Inua  the  moon  was 
rising,  and  all  along  the  eastern  shore  the  dark  forests  of 
the  foot-hills  began  to  gleam  with  a  magic  light  that  seemed 
to  spread  with  the  night-mist  till  it  glittered  through  the 
tree-tops  of  the  coast-islands  and  painted  the  lake  with 
silver  streaks  and  spangles.  From  the  dark  north  coast 
the  scream  of  a  waterfowl  came  now  and  then  like  a  dis- 
tant trumpet-note,  but  the  chorus  of  the  lake-frogs  had 


THE  LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO. 


KKi 


CHECHEMECA    PLATANERO. 


subsided  into  a  minor  key,  and  even  the  booming  ol"  the 
Rio  Blanco  liad  a  muffled  sound,  as  if  the  water-spirits 
were  yielding  to  the  slumberous  spells  of  the  night-wind. 

We  stood  silent  till  my  companion  tapped  me  on  the 
shoulder :  "  This  evening  you  said  something  about  inveig- 
ling a  railroad  company  into  the  valley.  You  will  have  to 
do  it  yourself,  amigo:  I  don't  want  the  weight  of  such  a 
sin  on  my  soul." 

The  Rio  Lerma  enters  the  lake  as  a  rock-bound  moun- 
tain-river, and  leaves  it  a  broad  streiim  with  low  shores  and 
sedgy  shallows;  but  before  it  reaches  the  cojist  it  contracts 
once  more  to  force  its  way  through  the  tortuous  defiles  of 
the  Sierra  de  Santiago,  while  the  road  takes  a  short  cut 


104  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

through  the  Porta  Marina,  a  deep  gap  which  intersects  the 
mountain-range  about  fourteen  miles  north  of  the  river- 
canon  and  hardly  eight  hundred  feet  above  the  water-level. 
From  the  ai)ex  of  the  pass  we  could  see  the  south  shore  of 
the  lake  in  all  its  grandeur;  also  a  lateral  valley  with  dif- 
ferent smaller  lakes,  one  of  which,  the  Ojo  del  Cayman, 
became  "  bottomless"  a  few  years  ogo,  when  an  earthquake 
overthrew  a  steep  rock  on  its  western  shore  and  swallowed 
a  little  island  M^hich,  as  our  guide  told  us,  had  been  culti- 
vated by  one  of  Don  Martinez's  neighbors  for  many  years. 
The  western  slope  of  the  sierra  stretched  away  to  the  very 
edge  of  the  Pacific,  whose  coast  is  indeed  an  almost  con- 
tinuous mountain-slope  from  Oregon  to  Patagonia,  while 
the  west  shore  of  the  Atlantic  is  flanked  with  equally  per- 
sistent swamps.  On  a  headland  of  the  coast  that  looked 
like  the  northwestern  extremity  of  the  continent  we  could 
see  the  church-steeples  of  Mazatlan,  but  the  direct  distance 
could  not  be  less  than  sixty  leagues ;  so  we  decided  to  follow 
the  road  to  San  Bias,  a  little  seaport  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Rio  Lerma  and  hardly  twenty  English  miles  from  the  ridge 
of  our  mountain-range. 

About  three  miles  beyond  the  pass  we  overtook  a  gang 
of  Indian  plataneros,  or  banana-hucksters,  who  trudged 
along  manfully  under  loads  that  would  have  staggered  a 
mule,  and  attested  their  gratitude  with  unintelligible  but 
not  less  expressive  exclamations  when  we  permitted  them 
to  deposit  their  burdens  in  one  of  our  empty  wagons.  One 
of  them,  an  ex-mail-carriei-,  could  talk  a  little  Spanish,  but 
his  five  comrades  were  unqualified  Chechemecas,  and  wore 
the  turban-like  head-dress  which  distinguishes  the  bush 
Indian  from  his  half-civilized  city  cousin.  They  carried 
long  bows  of  bignonia-wood,  and  gave  us  a  sample  of  their 
skill  when  we  passed  a  swampy  lagoon  at  the  foot  of  the 


THE   LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO. 


105 


mountain.       We   heard   a   rustle  in   the  ciuiebrake   and  u 
splash  or  two  in  the  open  water  behind  it,  but  the  |)()<>1  was 


CHEOHEMECA    BOWMAN. 


screened  by  a  hedge  of  hack  berry-trees,  and  Ave  were  about 
to  pass  by,  thinking  of  the  common  swamp-turtles  thai 
frequent  such  lagoons,  when  one  of  the  Cliechemecas  i)ceped 
through  the  hedge  and  beckoned  to  us  to  stoj).  The  front 
teams  had  already  turned  a  corner,  but  our  wagon  was  oik; 
of  the  last,  and  four  of  us  jumped  down. 

''^  Maranosr  (wild  liogs)  cried  the  Indian:   "  lain  y  up! 
you  can  see  them  yet." 


log  UMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

A  herd  of  pecparis  had  been  rooting  in  a  reed-thicket  in 
the  middle  of  the  lagoon,  and  were  now  swimming  for  the 
opposite  bank  with  an  energy  that  stirred  the  little  pond 
from  shore  to  shore. 

"Why  don't  you  shoot,  companero?"  I  asked  the  mail- 
carrier  :  "  they  are  not  out  of  range  yet,  are  they  ?" 

"  No  use,  sir,"  said  he ;  "  not  water  enough  to  swim,  and 
too  much  mud  to  wade  it ;  but  we  can  try  it  for  fun.  Be 
quick,  boys,"  reaching  for  his  bow  with  an  exclamation  in 
the  vernacular  :  "  Here  goes !" 

The  first  volley  scattered  among  the  swimming  heads, 
but  a  big  sow  that  landed  on  a  peninsular  mud-bank  re- 
ceived two  arrows  at  the  same  moment  and  almost  in  the 
same  place ;  and  one  of  her  pigs  was  crippled  in  a  way 
that  would  have  ensured  its  capture  if  we  could  have 
reached  the  other  shore.  The  rest  were  cautious  enough  to 
swim  around  the  peninsula,  and  landed  on  the  safe  side  of 
a  mangrove-coppice. 

The  pco^c.y  {8us  torquatus)  is  one  of  the  few  migratory 
quadrupeds  of  our  continent,  and  roams  from  the  E,io 
Grande  to  the  Orinoco  in  search  of  swamps  and  inundated 
forests,  and  in  wet  seasons  often  appears  en  masse  in  upland 
regions  where  it  has  not  been  seen  for  a  half-century.  It 
is  smaller  and  uglier,  but  much  more  active,  than  our 
domestic  hog, — the  sow  we  saw  in  the  lagoon  cleared  a 
broad  sand-bank  at  a  single  leap,  and  rushed  into  the  man- 
grove-thicket with  heroic  disregard  of  the  prickly  under- 
brush. Some  of  her  pigs  seemed  to  have  been  littered  in 
the  preceding  summer, — i.e.,  three  or  four  months  before, 
— but  they  swam  like  ducks,  as,  indeed,  all  young  animals 
do,  at  least  as  soon  as  they  can  run,  the  children  of  man 
alone  excepted.  Have  we  incurred  such  disabilities  by  our 
almormal  habits  ?    Now  and  then  I  cannot  help  suspecting 


THE  LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO.  IQ? 

that  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  was  riglit :  non  "nt  quod  fuit 
Natura. 

One  of  our  Indians  seemed  to  be  sick  or  weak-minded  : 
he  tramped  along  without  ever  raising  liis  head,  and  re- 
peatedly stumbled  over  obstacles  which  even  a  short-sighted 
man  luig-ht  have  avoided.  "  What's  the  matter  with  that 
comrade  of  yours?"  I  asked  the  mail-carrier:  "can  I  help 
him  in  any  way?" 

"No,  sir;  it  can't  be  helped,  I  guess :  he  is  blear-eyed 
and  nearly  blind.      Eel-hunting  did  it." 

"  Hunting— Wia^  f 

"Barcas  eels  or  eel-snakes,"  explained  the  guide  :  "  they 
come  ashore  in  moonlight  nights,  you  know,  and  the  In- 
dians often  collar  them  by  the  sackful." 

"  What  has  that  to  do  with  his  eyes  ?" 

"  I  do  not  know,  sir,  but  they  ascribe  it  to  the  moon,  like 
a  good  many  other  diseases.  If  their  children  are  playing 
out-doors  in  the  evening,  the  old  ones  are  sure  to  drive 
them  in  as  soon  as  the  moon  rises.  Moonlight  makes  them 
anochido"  (night-eyed),  "they  say,  and  unfit  to  work  in 
daytime." 

The  last  four  miles  of  our  journey  brought  us  in  sight 
of,  and  finally  back  to,  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Lerma,  a 
happy  river  that  passes  from  the  hills  to  the  sea  without 
muddling  its  waters  in  an  intermediate  swamp-estuary,  after 
the  fashion  of  our  Atlantic  streams.  We  entered  the  town 
through  a  double  gate  that  forms  the  main  sallyport  of  a 
fort  and  gives  the  place  something  of  a  mediaeval  p])pcar- 
ance;  and  San  Bias  is  really  one  of  the  oldest  Spanish 
towns  of  the  New  World, — nearly  a  century  older  than  New 
York  and  New  Vera  Cruz,  for  the  seaport  where  Hernan 
Cortez  landed  in  1518  was  abandoned  some  ninety  years 
after  Ruiz  Lacerdo  fortified  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Lerma. 


108  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

While  the  custom-house  officers  inspected  tlie  doctor's 
bacfgage,  I  acooinpanied  the  wagonmaster  to  the  Morgan 
agency,  and  our  first  question  was  after  our  old  mail-boat, 
the  Gila  City,  whose  schedule  wc  knew  to  have  been 
changed  since  the  capture  of  Guaymas. 

"  She  went  up  this  morning,"  said  the  clerk,  "  but  you 
can  take  the  Panama  steamer.  Yes,  to-morrow  is  Wed- 
nesday :  she  will  be  here  in  the  evening  at  four  or  five 
o'clock,  if  she  is  on  time." 

Going  back  to  the  custom-house,  we  met  the  agent  him- 
self, a  very  intelligent  young  Scotchman  of  the  Mackenzie 
clan,  who  gave  us  all  the  particulars  of  information  we 
could  desire,  and  offered  us  the  hospitality  of  his  own 
quarters  in  the  agency  building.  But  Dr.  Rambert  was 
suffering  from  his  old  com]>laint,  chronic  rheumatism,  and 
preferred  the  dreary  solitude  of  a  posada;  and  I  joined 
him  in  order  to  spare  him  the  delays  and  chicaneries  of  a 
Mexican  hostelry. 

On  the  following  morning  Mr.  Mackenzie  called  upon 
us  at  the  Posada  de  la  Cruz,  and,  finding  the  doctor  dozing 
after  a  sleepless  night,  asked  me  to  come  down  town  and 
take  a  look  at  the  harbor.  "  It's  doivn  in  the  geometrical 
sense  of  the  word,"  he  added  :  "  this  old  hole  is  carved  out 
of  a  mountain-side  like  a  slate-quarry." 

We  inspected  the  wharves,  the  American  warehouses,  and 
the  old  Spanish  fort,  Avhere  we  witnessed  the  guard -mount 
of  a  ragged  regiment  with  an  excellent  regimental  band,  and 
then  sauntered  along  the  beach  to  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
Lerma,  where  the  coast  assumes  a  rugged  and  cavernous  char- 
acter and  harbors  countless  gulls  and  a  colony  of  nutras,  or 
sea-otters,  that  sport  in  the  surf  like  ])()rpoises,  and  seem  to 
have  their  nests  in  the  penetralia  of  the  honeycombed  cliff'. 
From  there  we  returned  to  the  harbor  by  a  circuitous  route, 


THE   LAh'h'-NI'XHON   OF  JALISCO. 


109 


A    XKOKO    POLYOI.OT. 


arul  took  :i  look  at  a  licensed  ganihling-lioiise  and  at  the 
"Suburb  of  the  Chiiianien,"  wJio,  Hndini^  no  shirts  to  wash, 
have  devoted  iheniselvc^s  to  the  nianutlieture  of  fish-pies 
and  iced  lemonade.  Among  the  living-  curiosities  ol"  the 
town  is  a  tame  alligator,  tlie  {)ro])erty  of  an  English  agent 
and  a  great  pet  of  the  'longshoremen,  and  a  negro  polyglot 
who  speaks  two  American  and  four  Eur()j)ean  languages, 
and  lias  even  mastered  the  principal  monosyllables  of  IIoj)- 


110  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Wang-Lee.  His  industrial  talents  are  still  more  versatile. 
He  acts  as  runner  for  two  hotels  and  one  stage-coach  com- 
pany ;  peddles  relics  to  the  native  Christians,  Chicago  jew- 
elry to  the  heathen  Chinee,  and  sea-shells  to  foreign  ration- 
alists, with  impartial  eloquence  and  effrontery ;  keeps  magic 
oils  and  yellow-fever  pills  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  in 
general,  and  a  deck  of  Spanish  monte  cards  as  a  side-show. 
"  He  has  numerous  native  rivals,"  observed  Mr.  Mackenzie, 
"  but  they  do  not  find  it  very  easy  to  compete  with  a  man 
who  can  lie  in  seven  languages  and  cheat  at  fourteen  differ- 
ent trades." 

The  agency  clerk  in  the  meanwhile  had  found  room  for 
our  caravan  in  a  suburban  corral,  and  Mr.  Mackenzie  quar- 
tered our  teamsters  in  a  private  posada. 

"  Travellers  in  Spanish  America,"  said  the  practical 
Scotchman,  "  should  never  put  up  at  a  public  hotel  unless 
they  are  saddled  witli  invalids  or  ladies,  but  should  take 
rooms  at  a  posada"  (lodging-house),  "  stipulate  beforehand 
for  such  extras  as  drinking-water  and  errand-boys,  and  take 
their  meals  wherever  they  find  a  sensible  dish  ready  made. 
By  doing  so  they  will  avoid  the  inflated  bills  and  inflamed 
pepper-pots,  as  well  as  the  noise  and  the  kitchen  fumes,  of 
the  public  meson." 

I  spent  the  afternoon  with  Dr.  Rambert,  and  had  just 
persuaded  him  to  send  for  a  little  lunch  when  a  messenger 
from  the  agency  brought  us  word  that  the  San  Salvador 
had  been  signalled  in  the  offing  and  would  reach  her  land- 
ing at  about  four  o'clock.  The  doctor  grabbed  his  hat, 
but  I  prevailed  on  him  to  stay  and  break  his  fast  while  I 
escorted  his  luggage  to  the  wharf. 

Since  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  the  vid- 
Panama  steamboat  line  has  to  fight  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence against  desperate  odds,  but  it  has  spared  no  efforts  to 


THE  LAKE-REGION  OF  JALISCO.  l\\ 

maintain  its  old  popularity  by  novel  devices.  The  San 
Salvador  steamed  up  the  harbor  like  a  floating  oj)ei-a-liouse, 
her  deck  on  fire  with  music,  flags,  and  gorgeous  uniforms, 
and  the  suavity  of  the  employ^  could  not  have  been  sur- 
passed by  the  ushers  of  a  new  metropolitan  meeting-house. 
They  got  all  the  baggage  aboard  in  a  trice,  and  then  waited 
with  respectful  deference  till  the;  last  of  their  passengers 
had  shaken  hands  for  the  last  tinie  Avath  the  last  of  his  be- 
reaved friends.  Dr.  Rambert  looked  a  little  glum  when 
he  trod  the  last  furlong  of  Mexican  soil,  but  once  on  the 
plank  he  stuck  his  hands  into  his  pockets  and  marched 
aboard  with  all  the  nonchalance  of  a  Gallic  philosopher. 

"  You  are  now  going  to  find  what  you  need  most,  home 
comforts  and  perfect  rest,"  said  I,  "  but  your  Protestant 
friends  in  Potosi  will  be  selfish  enough  to  miss  you  sadly, 
for  all  that." 

"Oh,  they'll  get  over  it,"  said  the  doctor,  gayly,  "but  it's 
rough  on  the  orthodox  party :  they're  quite  disconsolate. 
I  really  cannot  think  of  them  without  feeling  like  a  run- 
away debtor." 

"  What  do  you  owe  them?  You  paid  for  that  bewitched 
horse,  didn't  you  ?" 

"  Yes,"  laughed  the  doctor,  "  but  I  cheated  them  out  of 
a  first-class  solemnity :  they'll  hav(;  to  burn  me  in  e^gy 
now." 

The  San  Salvador  had  landed  some  Mexican  pas- 
sengers, who  had  hardly  left  the  wharf-boat  before  the 
proprietor  of  a  neighboring  restaurant  began  to  hammer 
his  supper-gong.  The  day  was  indeed  far  spent,  but 
the  merry  sports  of  the  sea-gulls  promised  a  fine  evening, 
and  Mr.  Mackenzie  invited  me  ,to  take  a  stroll  to  the 
promontory. 

San  Bias   is  a  humble  pueblo,  and  eainiot   boast  of  any 


112  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

city  parks  with  flowery  promenades  and  monumental  hotels; 
but  a  lonely  sea-shore  can  dispense  with  such  embellish- 
ments :  at  least,  I  am  sure  that  we  did  not  regret  their  ab- 
sence when  we  reached  the  cliffs  that  overlook  the  otter-cave 
and  the  murmuring  surf  at  tlie  headland,  where  the  Rio 
Lerma  confides  the  secret  of  liis  birtli  to  the  Pacific, 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   WESTERN   SIERRAS. 

Their  ways  are  not  like  ours,  but  wild  and  rugged  ; 
And,  unlike  ours,  they  lead  to  happiness. 

De  Mora  :  El  JVnevo  Mundo. 

The  stormy  September  equinox  of  the  American  tropics 
is  followed  in  Southern  Mexico  by  a  halcyon  season  of 
three  or  four  months,  during  which  even  the  Tierra  Cali- 
ente,  the  sultry  lowland  of  the  coast-regions,  enjoys  suc- 
cessive weeks  of  that  genial  and  absolutely  cloudless 
weather  which  sometimes  precedes  the  midsummer  heat  of 
our  Northern  clime,  while  the  skies  and  breezes  of  the 
sierras  are  only  equalled  by  the  happiest  October  days  of 
the  North  Carolina  Allcghanies. 

There  is  a  boat-house  at  San  Bias  where  sailing-yawls 
can  be  hired  at  six  reals  (seventy  cents)  a  day,  and  mv 
rambles  in  the  Coast  Range  were  so  much  more  pleasant 
than  the  dust  and  racket  of  the  caravan-journey  that  I  was 
almost  sorry  to  learn  that  the  Gila  City  had  landed  her 
cargo,  and  that  the  teams  would  start  in  a  couple  of  days. 
I  had  half  a  mind  to  stay  and  take  my  chance  of  reaching 
Potosi  in  time  by  the  next  trip,  but  Mr.  Mackenzie  infonued 
me  that  the  same  boat  had  brought  such  favorable  news 
from  Guaymas  that  the  Morgan  teamsters  might  possibly 
resume  their  old  route  with  the  next  month. 

"Are  you  in  earnest  about  that?"  he  asked,  when  I  told 
him  that  I  should  even  prefer  to  cross  the  mountains  afoot 

113 


114 


SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 


SA>    HI A^ 


if"  I  could  find  a  re- 
liable guide,  though 
my  arrival  in  San  Luis 
might  thus  be  delayed 
two  or  three  weeks. 
"Why  not?    They 

do  not  want  me  before  the  end  of  next  month,  and  certainly 

not  before  Christmas." 

"  No,  I  mean  in  regard  to  that  pedestrian  project,"  said 

he ;  "  because  if  you  have  a  mind  to  rough  it  for  a  couple 

of  weeks  I  could  recommend  you  a  guide  who  would  put 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  US 

you  on  your  mettle, — a  chap  that  took  us  overland  to 
Vera  Paz  last  spring, — my  brother  Aleck  and  me.  When 
my  brother  was  sixteen  years  old  he  could  beat  our  Lanark- 
shire guides  at  their  own  trade,  and  1  would  have  backed 
him  against  any  living  American  mountaineer;  but  I 
modified  my  opinion  when  we  tried  conclusions  with  this 
Mexican  in  the  Sierra  de  Colima  last  March.  He  is  honest, 
too, — at  least  for  a  Greaser, — and  a  personified  gazetteer  of 
Western  Mexico :  he  and  his  fiither  used  to  belong  to  a 
company  of  operadores,  who  travel  around  prospecting  for 
silver  ore,  and  they  took  him  all  over  the  country  from 
California  to  Honduras.  He  is  a  native  of  Orizaba,  near 
Vera  Cruz." 

"  So  he  is  acquainted  with  the  eastern  slope,  too  ?" 
"  At  least  with  the  State  of  Puebla.  Yes,  I  should 
advise  you  to  take  in  the  eastern  Coast  Range :  the  Sierra 
Madre  between  Puebla  and  Perote  is,  after  all,  the  Switzer- 
land of  this  continent.  You  could  take  a  detour  through 
the  Val  de  San  Juan  and  back  to  Potosi  by  way  of  Que- 
r^taro." 

"  What  does  he  charge  for  a  three  weeks'  trip  ?" 
"  Oh,  anything  you  will  give :  he  is  very  poor.  His 
prospecting  company  broke  up  some  years  ago,  and  he's  now 
peddling  pastry  for  a  second-class  confectioner.  I  suppose 
^"ou  will  need  a  poi'tador  (a  carrier)  for  your  blankets  and 
comestibles:  we  had  two  of  them,  and  paid  them  and  tlie 
guide  ten  reals  per  diem.  If  you  find  the  tortillas,  he  will 
guide  you  all  over  Mexico  and  furnish  an  Indian  portador 
at  a  dollar  a  day." 

"  What !  portador  and  all  ?" 

"  Certainly.  There  are  Indian  adobe-carriers  in  our 
suburbs  that  work  like  mules  from  morning  till  night  for 
three  reals,  without  a  crumb  of  board  :  they  enjoy  such  a 


J 16  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

trip  as  much  as  the  travellers  do,  and  make  money  besides. 
But  before  you  start  you  ought  to  stipulate  for  the  amount 
of  baggage  they  are  to  carry,  and  promise  them  a  few  dol- 
lars extra  at  the  end  of  the  business  if  they  behave  well." 

"  Where  can  I  find  that  guide?" 

"  I'll  find  him  for  you  :  just  let  me  know  how  much  time 
you  can  afford  to  spend  on  the  trip." 

I  completed  my  mountaineering-gear  with  a  couple  of 
rubber  blankets,  two  hatchets,  a  coil  of  pellejos,  or  rawhide 
ropes,  and  a  Mexican  army-tent  with  a  set  of  joint  poles. 
The  wagonmaster  promised  to  deliver  my  trunk  and  a 
couple  of  letters  in  Potosi. 

"  I  have  got  one  of  your  men  here  now,"  said  Mr.  Mac- 
kenzie when  I  passed  his  office  in  the  afternoon :  "  I  was 
jiLst  going  to  send  my  clerk  to  your  posada.  You  can  start 
as  soon  as  you  are  ready.  Step  in,  if  you  like  to  take  a 
look  at  your  man.  This  is  Jose  Milano,  the  guide  I  told 
you  about." 

A  barefoot  mestizo  rose  from  his  seat  on  the  balustrade. 
"  No  mira  mi  mugre,  caballero, — please  overlook  my 
squalor,"  said  he,  with  a  deprecating  glance  at  his  feet :  "  I 
have  been  out  in  the  dust  all  day,  and  was  just  going  home 
when  the  senor  called  me  in." 

The  original  color  of  his  trousers  seemed  rather  doubtful, 
and  a  well-worn  and  somewhat  greasy  scrape  constituted 
his  only  upper  garment;  but  he  was  clean-built,  lithe,  and 
black-eyed  as  an  Hungarian  gypsy,  and  prepossessed  me  by 
a  certain  graceful  frankness  of  speech  and  manner  that  con- 
trasted agreeably  with  the  usual  cringing  submissiveness  of 
his  countrymen. 

"  I  am  in  business  here,"  said  he,  pointing  to  his  cake- 
basket,  "  and  I  ought  to  stick  to  it,  but  I  couldn't  resist 
when  Don  Ricardo  told  me  that  you  are  going  to  visit  mis 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  117 

montes  naturaleji, — my  native  mountains :  it's  perhaps  the 
last  time  I  shall  see  them.  My  time  is  nearly  up, — i^ot 
just  five  months  of  free  life  left:  I'm  going  to  be  married 
next  March." 

He  engaged  to  find  an  expert  portador  before  night,  and 
to  report  the  next  morning  at  eight  o'clock  in  full  marching 
order. 

In  order  to  avoid  the  dust  and  the  tedium  of  the  Vega, 
Mr.  Mackenzie  advised  me  to  take  the  Mazatlan  stage  as 
far  as  San  Pedro,  where  a  spur  of  the  Balsas  Mountains 
connects  the  Coast  Range  with  tlie  main  chain  of  the 
Sierra  de  Inua.  From  there  Jose  knew  a  ridge-way — or, 
as  a  California  teamster  would  say,  a  high-level  road — to 
the  plateau  of  Eastern  Jalisco. 

The  harbor  was  veiled  by  a  sea-fog  the  next  morning, 
but  the  upper  town  was  light,  and  a  look  at  the  mountains 
satisfied  me  that  the  sky  would  clear  up  again  before  noon. 
On  my  way  to  the  ofjUeio  de  eorreos,  or  stage-coach  depot,  I 
was  joined  by  Mr.  Mackenzie  and  one  of  his  clerks,  and  a 
few  minutes  before  eight  the  guide  made  his  appearance 
with  a  stout  Indian  carrier,  ready  ])acked  and  strapped  for 
an  immediate  anabasis.  Jose  was  equipped  in  correct  mon- 
tero  costume, — pressed-leather  sombrero,  leather  breeches, 
sandals,  and  a  short  jacket  covered  with  a  brand-new  sera])e. 
He  carried  a  kit  with  sundry  camping  and  cooking  utensils 
and  a  portion  of  the  comestibles,  which  Mr.  Mackenzie  had 
been  kind  enough  to  furnish  us  from  tiie  agency  store,  and 
had  brought  a  little  terrier  along,  which  he  assured  me 
would  prove  a  very  useful  \yatch-dog  in  our  sierra-cam])s. 
The  carrier  was  a  stolid  but  good-natured-looking  old 
Tuxpano  or  mountain-Indian,  barefoot  and  almost  bare- 
legged, with  an  arm-hole  scrape  that  displayed  a  bull  neck 
and  a  pair  of  powerful  arms.     At  the  dep6t  we  met  his 


113  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

wife,  an  emotional  old  Tuxpana,  who  insisted  on  carrying 
my  gun  and  shawl  to  the  coach  ;  and  when  Mr.  Macken- 
zie's clerk  happened  to  splash  his  boots  in  the  muddy 
corral,  the  poor  old  body  knelt  down  and  cleaned  them 
with  all  the  spitting  and  rubbing  eagerness  of  a  Castle 
Garden  bootblack.  Before  we  could  get  rid  of  her  she 
showed  me  a  piece  of  paper  folded  and  tied  up  with  bits  of 
red  yarn,  handed  it  to  the  guide  and  patted  his  shoulder 
to  coax  him  into  a  faithful  interpretation  of  her  comments. 
"  That's  his  testimonial,"  explained  Jos6 :  "  she  says  her 
husband's  last  boss  wrote  this  for  you  to  read." 

"  All  right !  just  keep  it :  I'll  read  it  by  and  by.  How 
far  is  it  to  San  Pedro  from  here  ?" 

"You'll  get  there  before  noon,"  said  Mr.  Mackenzie. 
"  San  Pedro  lies  at  the  foot  of  the  black  hill  just  below 
that  double-peaked  mountain,"  pointing  to  a  range  of  sun- 
gilt  hills  in  the  northeast. 

"  Are  they  not  beautiful  ?"  said  the  clerk.  "  They  just 
remind  me  of  the  Stirlingshire  Grampians,  and  that  cluster 
of  mountains  in  the  middle  has  nearly  the  shape  of  Ben 
Roonis,  near  Levendale." 

"  Hush  up,  you  rascal !"  laughed  the  agent,  "  or  I  join 
the  party  and  leave  you  in  the  lurch.  Indeed,  sir,"  said 
he  to  me,  "  I  can  stand  it  only  by  sticking  to  the  lower 
part  of  the  town,  where  the  sierra  is  out  of  sight.  It 
makes  me  hom,esick,  though  it's  a  libel  on  an  alpine  range 
like  that  to  compare  it  to  our  Caledonian  molehills.  You 
will  see  wonderful  scenery,  and  the  Jalisco  highlands  are 
full  of  curious  ruins,  temples,  teocaUis  and  cairns,  and  a 
still  more  interesting  ethnological  relic, — two  tribes  of 
pagan  Indians,  the  Jaliscos  and  Tuxpans,  who  have  pre- 
served their  religious  and  political  freedom  in  spite  of 
monks  and  muskets.     You  must  pass  through  Mayapan, 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  n9 

and  get  Josey  to  show  you  the  great  rock-temple  in  the 
Tuxpan  village.  Oh  !  and  I  almost  forgot,"  taking  a 
paper  from  his  breast-pocket :  "  If  you  stop  at  the  Hacienda 
del  Monte,  as  they  call  it,  you  will  do  me,  and  perhaps 
yourself,  a  favor  if  you  will  forward  this  letter  to  Jimmy 
Cardenas,  the  ex-governor  of  Jalisco.  Give  him  my  best 
respects.  He  is  quite  an  exceptional  Mexican :  you  will 
understand  what  I  mean  if  you  make  his  acquaintance." 

The  coach  started,  and,  after  rumbling  through  the 
debris  of  the  old  Spanish  city-wall,  took  the  Mazatlan 
camino  real,  a  sand-road,  through  the  open  Vega.  There 
were  only  two  inside  passengers  besides  Jos6  and  me,  but 
the  Tuxpan  had  deposited  his  pack  and  himself  on  the 
pescante,  the  roof-seat  behind  the  coachman's  box,  from 
modesty  rather  than  in  accordance  with  any  established 
rule,  for  the  conductor  of  a  dUigencia  tolerates  not  only 
Indians,  but  dogs,  and,  as  Jos6  assured  me,  even  goats,  on 
the  reserved  seats. 

The  Pacific  glittered  through  the  tree-tops  of  the  mango- 
plantations  when  we  reached  San  Pedro,  but  the  same  wind 
that  had  dissipated  the  sea-fog  swept  blinding  sand-clouds 
across  the  Vega  that  became  almost  suffocating  where  they 
mixed  with  the  dust  of  the  unpaved  pueblo. 

"  We  shall  soon  be  out  of  this,"  said  Jose.  "  Look 
there !  Ha^  a  mile  above  that  little  gap  we  shall  strike 
the  Saltillo  trail  and  a  mountain-meadow,  to  where  no  dust 
ever  reached." 

The  first  ascent  was  rather  steep,  and  made  more  difficult 
by  the  multitude  of  jagged  stumps,  half  hidden  in  weeds 
and  brambles,  for  opposite,  and  for  some  distance  nortiieast 
of  the  village,  the  slopes  had  been  cleared ;  but  after 
reaching  the  next  terrace  the  trail  improved,  and,  as  we 
kept  along  the  ridge,  I  saw  that  farther  north  the  foot-hills 


120  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

were  covered  with  dark-green  Bombax  forests,  and  that 
the  main  chain  of  the  Coast  Eauge  was  densely  wooded 
almost  up  to  the  steep  cliffs  of  the  summit  regions. 

South  of  the  twenty-eighth  degree  of  latitude  the  Cor- 
dilleras of  Western  America  are  generally  boscados,  or 
forest-mountains,  in  strange  contrast  with  the  western 
coast  of  the  old  continent,  where  the  same  climatic,  if  not 
geometrical,  parallel  marks  the  boundary  of  the  northern 
forest-lands.  South  America  has  an  African  sun,  but  no 
African  deserts;  Colorado,  the  climate  of  the  Alps,  but 
no  Alpine  forests :  in  other  words,  our  continent  has  a 
fertile  Morocco  and  a  virgin-wood  Sahara,  but  a  desolate 
France  and  a  barren  Switzerland.  According  to  the  tra- 
ditions of  the  Aztecs  and  Toltecs,  as  well  as  of  the  Western 
Peruvians,  their  ancestors  came  from  the  North, — very 
likely  across  Behring's  Strait,  where  Western  America 
approaches  the  fatherland  of  all  tailless  monkeys, — but 
before  they  reached  the  tropics  they  tarried  north  of  the 
Rio  Gila  for  a  millennium  or  two,  and  probably  committed 
the  same  outrages  against  the  vegetable  kingdom  by  which 
the  Numidian  sylvania  was  changed  into  a  sand-waste. 

We  halted  at  a  dry  arroyo  to  pick  a  cupful  of  small 
yellow  raspberries,  and,  finding  them  well-flavored,  I  fol- 
lowed the  creek  as  far  as  it  ran  parallel  with  our  trail. 
Half  a  mile  farther  up  it  connected  with  a  broader  valley, 
where  we  found  a  running  stream  and  larger  raspberries, 
but  also  an  appalling  number  of  venomous  snakes.  The 
grass  wriggled  with  dwarf  rattlesnakes  and  vivoras  jpardas 
(gray  vipers),  and  whenever  we  came  near  the  creek  a  score 
of  water-moccasins  dropped  in  with  a  simultaneous  splash 
that  reminded  me  of  the  broadsides  of  bullfrogs  plumping 
from  the  reed-islands  of  the  low^er  Potomac  at  the  approach 
of  a  canoe. 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  121 

"  Why,  that's  nothing,"  laughed  Jos6.  "  Do  you  see 
that  swampy  bottom  back  there  where  tlie  creek  comes 
from  ? — the  Vol  de  Culebras,  the  Serpent  Valley,  they  call 
it :  that's  the  place  where  a  Semasquito  (snake-eating 
Indian)  could  put  up  a  year's  provisions  in  two  or  three 
hours.  There's  a  viper-nest  in  every  bush  and  every 
bunch  of  Spanish  moss  up  there," 

"  What  do  the  snakes  all  live  on  ?" 

"  Tadpoles,  I  believe,"  said  Jose.  "  In  the  rainy  season 
that  bottom  is  full  of  water,  and  the  marsh  it  leaves  breeds 
vermin  of  all  sorts.  In  the  dry  season  they  have  to  starve, 
I  guess,  except  the  tree-snakes  and  vivoras  pardas :  they 
are  smart  enough  to  find  a  square  meal  every  day  in  the 
year." 

I  killed  and  dissected  a  large  blacksnake,  but  found 
nothing  to  indicate  that  it  had  broken  its  fast  for  the  last 
week  or  two,  but  the  autopsy  of  a  fat  vivora  revealed  two 
half-digested  birds  and  tufts  of  hair  that  looked  like  the 
fur  of  a  young  red  squirrel.  A  sluggish  reptile  that  can 
raise  such  tidbits  where  the  swift  blacksnake  has  to  starve 
must  indeed  be  "  more  subtile  than  any  beast  of  the  field 
which  the  Lord  God  has  made ;"  but  the  specimens  I  saw 
were  as  slimy  as  leeches,  and  so  disgustingly  fat  that  tliey 
could  only  have  tempted  an  Eve  of  the  most  depraved 
taste. 

By  persistent  climbing  and  short  halts  we  managed  to 
reach  the  upper  ridge  before  sunset,  and  on  the  eastern 
declivity  of  a  narrow  plateau,  caj>ped  with  wikl  currants 
and  cedar-bushes  [Junij)erus  spicatus),  the  granite  alps  of 
Jalisco  and  the  jagged  peaks  of  tlic  Sierra  de  San  Juan 
rose  suddenly  to  view.  The  mountain-walls  of  the  eastern 
highlands,  which  glittered  like  snow  where  their  cliifs 
reflected  the  horizontal  sun-rays,  I  found,  on  examination 


122  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

with  the  telescope,  to  consist  of  white  limestone  or  granular 
quartz ;  but  those  of  the  Coast  Range,  as  well  as  the  inter- 
mediate sierra,  are  of  volcanic  origin,  and  present  the  most 
fantastic  outlines,  as  if  the  gaps  between  their  summits  had 
been  escarped  with  a  splintering  instrument,  rather  than  by 
the  hollowing  and  rounding  influence  of  the  mountain 
waters.  Some  of  their  pinnacles  resembled  the  minarets 
of  a  fanciful  mosque,  and  it  needed  the  circumstantial  evi- 
dence of  perspectives  from  different  points  of  view  and  the 
gradual  extension  of  the  evening  shadows  to  convince  me 
that  a  'group  of  turreted  peaks  in  the  main  chain  of  the 
San  Juan  range  were  not  a  mirage  or  a  cloud  counterfeit. 

I  have  often  found  that  in  clear  nights  the  air  of  an  ele- 
vated plateau  is  perceptibly  warmer  than  that  of  the  valley 
regions.  The  evening  seemed  very  mild  when  the  wind 
subsided  together  with  the  sun,  and  as  our  canned  provi- 
sions would  last  us  for  a  day  or  two,  I  thought  we  might 
as  well  dispense  with  a  camp-fire ;  but  when  we  approached 
a  grove  of  cork-oaks  in  a  hollow  of  the  eastern  slope,  we 
all  agreed  that  a  little  fuel-forage  would  promote  our  com- 
fort as  well  as  our  appetites. 

While  we  collected  brambles  and  dry  twigs,  the  old 
Tuxpan  dragged  up  a  good-sized  fallen  tree,  chopped  it 
into  handy  billets,  helped  me  to  pitch  my  tent,  and  then 
retired  with  a  strip  of  dried  beef  and  a  chunk  of  wheat 
bread — -por  en-mascarse — to  chew  himself  to  sleep,  as  the 
guide  expressed  it.  To  judge  by  his  deep  breathing,  the 
old  chap  was  comfortably  asleep  half  an  hour  after,  though 
his  serape  was  not  much  heavier  than  a  good-sized  bed- 
sheet.  He  was  a  native  of  the  Jalisco  highlands,  and  had 
preserved  his  hardy  habits  through  twenty  years  of  town- 
life.  His  younger  comrade  was  rather  a  mozuelo — a  city 
lad — in   manners   and    tendencies,   an   expert  in    opening 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS. 


123 


preserve-cans  and  wide  awake  as  to  tlie  merits  of  oiled 
sardines  and  the  superiority  of  catcliup  over  the  finest  chile 
Colorado.     After  helping  himself  to  the  l)ost  our  mess-ba^; 


THE   TUXPANO. 


afforded,  he  spread  his  couch  with  his  feet  to  the  fire,  and 
collected  a  large  blanketful  of  Spanish  moss  for  a  pillow. 

"  According  to  what  you  told  me  about  vipers  ;ind  tree- 
snakes,"  I  observed,  "  you  must  have  about  a  two-bushel 
bagful  of  them  in  that  pile." 

"  Ya  no  hay  cuidado"  (No  danger  of  that  now),  said  he : 
"  we  are  twelve  miles  above  their  head -quarter  valley.  Up 
here   you  wouldn't    find    anything   bigger  than   a  cecilia 


124  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

(blindworm) ;    they  can't    make    half  a   living   in    these 
rocks." 

"How  big  will  they  grow  in  their  head-quarters?" 
"  In  the  Val  de  Culebras  ?    Oh,  there's  no  limit  to  their 
fatness  and  length,  sir.     I  saw  a  blacksnake  there  as  long 
as  a  lariat,  and  a  vivora  parda  with  a  head  like  a  good- 
sized  pug-dog's." 

"  What's  the  biggest  snake  you  ever  saw,  Josey  ?" 
"  I  could  hardly  tell  you,  sir.  When  we  crossed  the 
Sumasinta  River,  in  Yucatan,  they  offered  us  the  carcass  of 
a  boa  with  a  belly  on  him  like  an  English  shipmaster ;  but 
down  in  Honduras  they  have  water-snakes  that  could 
sv/allow  such  boas  alive.  They  told  me  about  a  party  of 
turtle-hunters  that  came  across  a  monster  of  that  sort  on 
the  Belize  Bayou, — a  river  as  broad  as  the  Rio  Lerma, — 
but  the  snake  crossed  it  as  a  blacksnake  would  a  little 
creek,  and  when  its  head  reached  the  opposite  bank  the  tail 
end  was  still  trailing  through  the  canebrake  on  the  shore 
on  which  they  stood." 

I  thought  of  Don  Martinez's  alligator  phenomenon,  and 
it  occurred  to  mc  afterward  that  the  great  historical  serpent 
which  (as  Pliny  assures  us)  disputed  the  passage  of  the 
army  led  by  Regidus  along  the  banks  of  the  Bagrada 
belonged  probably  to  the  same  composite  order. 

The  night  was  almost  cloudless,  and  after  the  moon  went 
down  the  stars  glittered  with  a  brilliancy  which  is  rarely 
seen  in  our  Northern  lowlands.  When  I  awoke,  at  about 
four  o'clock  the  next  morning,  I  saw  for  the  first  time  a 
distinct  zodiacal  light  in  the  northea*^,  its  axis  passing 
through  Cancer  and  Gemini,  with  the  apex  of  the  pyramid 
nearly  touching  Aljjha  Leonis.  The  planet  Mercury  rose 
soon  after,  and  I  could  comprehend  the  morning-star  wor- 
ship of  the  ancient  Peruvians,  but  also  the  meaning  of  the 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  125 

Regio  septentrionalis.  The  seven  chief  triones  of  Arctiirus 
loomed  through  the  mist  of  the  nortiiern  horizon  with  a 
ruddier  and  more  remarkable  light  than  the  largest  fixed 
stars  of  a  higher  latitude,  and  were  thus  j)robably  seen  antl 
named  by  the  shepherds  of  Southern  Italy.  In  the  higher 
North,  where  they  never  reach  the  horizon,  their  arctic 
position  is  much  less  obvious. 

We  took  our  breakfast  at  the  next  spring,  and  followed 
our  trail  nearly  due  east  into  an  ascending  valley  of  the 
Inua  ridge.  Our  little  terrier  ranged  the  gullies  and  cop- 
pices with  indefatigable  energy,  and  flushed  at  least  twenty 
different  coveys  of  prairie-chickens  in  the  first  two  hours, 
and  started  a  flock  of  bighorn  sheep,  which  bounded  into 
a  ravine  with  an  impetus  that  made  the  stones  fly  in  all 
directions.  A  little  farther  on  the  same  ravine  widened  into 
a  broad  valley,  and  we  passed  different  cedar-groves  with 
an  undergrowth  of  wild  plum-trees  alternating  with  fine 
mountain-meadows. 

"  This  would  make  a  good  place  for  a  settlement,"  said 
I,  as  we  crossed  a  meadow  of  stone-clover  and  buttercups 
at  the  banlv  of  a  pebbly  stream. 

"  It  migiit,"  said  Jose ;  "  there  are  Indian  villages  in 
much  poorer  valleys  ;  but  a  settlement  of  white  rancheros 
would  hardly  have  farming-land  enough  up  here,  and  a 
single  man  might  find  it  rather  lonesome.  He  wouldn't 
hear  any  chickens  crow  but  his  own  :  the  farmers  around 
the  pueblo  we  left  yesterday  morning  would  be  about  his 
next  neighbors." 

Men  and  dogs  seemed,  indeed,  to  be  rare  guests  on  these 
heights,  for  while  we  ascended  a  little  bluff  at  the  head  of 
the  valley  a  trooj)  of  berendos,  or  mountain-antelopes, 
approached  us  from  the  left,  crossed  and  recrossed  the  trail 
hardly  forty  yards  in  front  of  us,  and  escorted  us  across  the 


126  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

bluif,  trotting  at  our  side  and  eying  us  with  evident  sur- 
prise. When  the  terrier  charged  them  the  next  buck  leaped 
aside  with  a  loud  l)leat,  and  the  troop  seemed  on  the  ])oint 
of  sttmipeding;  but  as  soon  as  wc  recalled  the  dog  they 
returned  and  followed  us  at  a  ti-ot,  mincing  their  steps  when 
they  had  reduced  the  distance  to  thirty  or  forty  yards,  as 
if  fearful  of  incurring  our  displeasure  by  any  nearer  ap- 
proach. During  the  next  half-hour  I  could  have  killed 
any  two  of  them  before  the  rest  could  get  out  of  range,  but 
we  preferred  their  merry  company  to  their  meat,  which,  as 
Jos6 — perhaps  in  the  interest  of  his  heavy-loaded  country- 
man— assured  me,  was  tough  and  rank,  and  "  peor  por  el 
chingatdl" — worse  now  on  account  of  the  rutting  season. 
In  the  course  of  the  same  afternoon  we  saw  different  bands 
of  bighorn  sheep,  which  gave  us  a  wider  berth  ;  but  their 
notions  of  danger  were  evidently  founded  upon  bow-and- 
arrow  data,  for  they  permitted  us  to  ap])roach  wdthin  easy 
rifle-shot  range.  I  also  noticed  that  they  let  a  gray  wolf 
[Canis  nuhilm)  get  within  ten  yards  of  their  outpost  before 
they  scampered  away.  I  suspect  that  the  sli}'ness  of  our 
European  and  North  American  game  is  something  quite 
abnormal  and  unnatural.  The  aspect  of  an  armed  Hoosier 
must  inspire  an  Indiana  deer  with  a  terror  of  which  no 
emotion  of  the  human  breast  would  give  us  any  adequate 
idea,  unless  we  should  stumble  upon  a  country  whose  tigers 
could  lea})  upon  us  from  a  distance  of  five  or  six  hundred 
yards. 

Our  road  led  along  the  base  of  a  steep  ridge  of  argilla- 
ceous limestone,  which  obstructed  the  view  to  the  north  and 
northwest,  but  the  scenery  became  more  interesting  when 
we  at  last  reached  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Raton  and  ascended 
it  into  the  defile  of  Santandcr,  the  gate  of  Eastern  Jalisco, 
and  the  main  pass  of  the  Sierra  de  Inua.     The  mountain- 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  127 

walls  on  both  sides  become  steeper  and  higher  as  the  defile 
narrows,  and  at  the  eastern  gate,  where  they  rise  to  a  height 
of  four  thousand  feet  above  the  trail,  the  tiny  stream  almost 
fills  the  bed  of  the  caflon,  and  a  full-grown  man  might  touch 
its  rocky  banks  on  both  sides  at  the  same  time.  Where  they 
recede,  they  open  abruptly  u])on  a  i)road  and  level  lawn, 
and  a  resolute  defender  of  such  a  Thermopylae  could  only 
be  crushed  by  unimaginable  odds,  and  would  be  safe  against 
all  flank  attacks,  for  the  eastern  front  of  the  sierra  for 
many  miles  to  the  left  and  riglit  is  an  almost  perpendicular 
precipice. 

Our  trail  now  turned  to  the  left,  winding  along  the  de- 
clivity of  a  mountain-spur,  but  with  a  deep  valley  at  our 
right,  which  would  have  attracted  my  attention  by  its  cha- 
otic cliffs  and  exuberant  vegetation  if  a  sudden  turn  of  the 
road  had  not  opened  a  vista  to  th(!  north  and  revealed  the 
grandest  scenery  of  Western  Mexico, — the  Coast  Range  of 
Sinaloa,  with  the  giant-peak  of  Culiacan.* 

It  is  an  old  French  saying  that  every  high  mountain  is 
a  sermon  which  directs  the  human  soul  to  heaven ;  and 
Lamartine  remarks  that  a  peak  adds  point  to  the  sermon. 
He  is  right:  at  least  I  think  that  a  nil-admirari  philoso- 
pher who  could  view  this  mountain  without  surprise  might 
consider  hijnself  emotion-proof.  The  extinct  volcano  of 
Culiacan  rises  thirteen  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
Pacific  and  about  seventy-five  hundred  above  the  ridge  of 
the  Coast  Range  from  a  wild  mass  of  pine  and  cedar  crags, 
while  the  upper  peak  is  covered  with  snow,  streaked  farther 
down  with  jet-black  basaltic  ribs.     But  it  is  not  so  much 


*  Pronounced  Cool-ya-can' ,  an  Indian  word  signifying  flint-head 
or  arrow-peak.  The  volcano  of  Culiacan  is  fifty  miles  north  of  Maz- 
atlan,  nearly  opposite  the  southern  extremit}' of  the  Californian  pen- 
insula. 


128 


SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 


the  height  or  color  of  the  volcano  which  distinguishes  it 
from  all  neighboring  summits  as  its  form,  which  makes  it, 
indeed,  incomparably  grander  than  almost  any  other  moun- 


i'i-AK    Ul     CULIACAN. 


tain  of  that  altitude.  As 
viewed  from  the  Sierra  de 
Inua,  the  cone  rises  in  a 
jagged  slope,  whose  steepness  for  tlie 
first  three  thousand  feet  does  not  exceed  that  of  the  Great 
Pyramid,  but  the  peak  tapers  towards  the  top,  so  that  the 
sharp  outlines  of  the  upper  four  thousand  feet  form  an  angle 
of  hardly  thirty-five  degrees,  and,  being  flanked  by  no  other 
summits  of  more  than  half  its  height,  the  great  mountain 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  129 

towers  up  against  the  sky  like  the  spire  of  a  stupendous 
Gothic  cathedral. 

The  Peak  of  Teneriffe  is  a  blunt  knob  by  com])arison, 
though  its  perfect  isolation  makes  it  almost  equally  con- 
spicuous, and  the  sharp  pinnacle  of  the  Matterhorn  is  hidden 
in  a  cluster  of  rival  heights.  So  far  as  I  know,  the  shape 
of  the  Pic  de  Culiacan  can  only  be  compared  to  one  other 
mountain  on  earth,  a  much  smaller  peak, — the  Col  du  Midi 
in  the  Southern  Cevennes,  which,  as  seen  from  the  head- 
waters of  the  Aveyron,  looks,  indeed,  more  like  a  pointed 
turret  than  a  natural  mountain. 

Towards  the  northwest  the  Coast  Range  subsides  rapidly, 
and  presents  an  even  or  slightly  undulating  outline,  but  its 
eastern  continuation,  the  Sierra  de  San  Juan,  abounds  in 
inaccessible  peaks  and  alpine  ranges,  capped  with  precipi- 
tous white  cliffs.  Yet  these  heights  are  inhabited,  and,  on 
the  whole,  better  cultivated  than  any  portion  of  the  fertile 
terrace-lands. 

The  guide  called  my  attention  to  a  column  of  milk-white 
smoke  that  seemed  to  rise  from  the  edge  of  a  lofty  ridge 
bordering  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Raton  in  the  northeast. 
"  That's  a  limekiln  in  the  wigwam  of  Villajmterna,"  said 
he:  "the  Jaliscanos  will  soon  have  a  regular  village  up 
there." 

^'  Have  they  permanent  wigwams  on  top  of  a  sierra  of 
that  height?" 

"  Yes ;  it's  their  reservation,  where  they  have  pastures 
and  orchards  of  their  own,  and  do  not  j)ermit  any  white 
man  to  settle  among  them  unless  he  promises  not  to  tax 
them  for  roads  and  diezmos'^  (church-tithes). 
"  They  do  not  want  any  roads,  then  ?" 
"  They  don't  need  them,  sir.  Look  at  Benito  here"  (the 
carrier) :  "  he  could  tote  that  load  of  his  up  the  steepest 


130  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

slope  in  the  sierra,  and  he's  nothing  but  an  old  granny- 
compared  with  some  of  his  countrymen.  There  are  only- 
three  or  four  thousand  of  them,  and  they  keep  all  Chris- 
tendom at  bay." 

The  savage  Jaliscanos  have  accomplished  what  the  gentle 
Waldenses  attempted  in  vain, — made  the  rocks  of  their 
mountain-home  the  bulwarks  of  personal  and  religious 
freedom ;  for  the  Mexican  government — which  permits  the 
Comanches  and  Apaches  to  defy  its  authority  on  the  plains 
of  Sonora — has  never  even  tried  to  meet  the  warlike  moun- 
taineers in  their  own  fastnesses,  and,  in  spite  of  their  reck- 
less bigotry,  the  Mexican  priests  have  been  daunted  by  a 
stronger  fanaticism  than  their  own.  The  Jalisco  Indians, 
like  the  Pintos  in  Yucatan  and  the  Cocharcos  in  Peru, 
adhere  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  are  privileged  from 
civil  and  military  duties  and  pay  no  direct  taxes,  and,  so 
far,  have  contrived  to  preserve  an  armed  peace  with  tlieir 
neighbors  without  permitting  them  any  interference  in  tlieir 
municipal  affairs.  Their  homes,  in  the  literal  sense,  are 
their  castles,  for  the  tribe,  which  once  was  scattered  over 
a  territory  of  fourteen  thousand  square  miles,  has  been 
isolated  by  its  chiefs  on  the  most  inaccessible  plateaux  of 
the  highest  mountain-range,  though  there  are  valleys  at 
their  feet  where  they  could  raise  abundant  crops  with  one- 
fourth  of  the  labor  which  now  only  wins  them  a  bare  living. 
They  are  hated  and  envied  by  their  priest-ridden  neighbors, 
but  men  deserve  their  liberty  who  are  ready  to  purchase  it 
at  such  a  price. 

We  met  two  of  their  bag-carriers  that  evening, — stout, 
broad-shouldered  men.,  with  fists  and  knee-bones  that  might 
have  excited  the  jealousy  of  a  Gaelic  moss-trooper.  Their 
only  piece  of  apparel  was  a  short  jacket  or  waistcoat,  with 
a  pair  of  shoulder-pads  to  support  the  cross-straps  of  their 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  \^\ 

burdens,  two  capacious  leather  bags  full  of  a  whitish  sub- 
stance which  I  supposed  to  be  flour  or  salt.  They  came 
up  with  swift,  steady  strides,  answered  my  greeting  with  a 
grunt  and  their  countryman's  jest  with  a  laconic  repartee, 
and  pursued  their  road  at  a  pace  that  would  have  braved 
the  field  at  an  international  walking-match. 

"These  fellows  earn  their  bread,  and  no  mistake,"  said 
I,  "  but  I  should  starve  for  a  good  while  before  I  would 
shoulder  a  flour-bag  of  that  size." 

"You  wouldn't  carry  it  very  far  then,"  laughed  Jose: 
"  it's  saltpetre  from  the  Mayapan  rock-caves, — about  twelve 
dollars'  worth  in  each  bag." 

"  They  sell  it,  I  suppose  ?" 

"  Yes,  or  exchange  it  for  shot  and  trinkets  or  a  new 
rifle  once  in  a  while :  that's  about  all  they  need, — every- 
thing else  they  make  or  raise  themselves." 

"  GunpoM'^der  too  ?" 

"  Certainly  :  they  have  all  the  ingredients  for  it.  They 
keep  cows  and  bees  too,  and  raise  big  crops  of  yams  and 
brown  beans.  They  have  no  corn,  but  they  make  bread 
from  polenta  (chestnut-flour).  They  need  no  shoes  and 
hardly  any  clothing." 

"  What  do  they  drink  ?" 

"  Nothing  at  all :  I  mean,  nothing  that  could  do  them 
any  good.  They  are  terribly  down  on  wine  and  aguard- 
iente, because  they  believe  the  Spaniards  invented  them  to 
poison  them  and  get  the  better  of  them  in  that  way.  If 
they  catch  one  of  their  young  bucks  drunk,  they  tie  him 
to  a  tree  and  let  him  stand  in  the  hot  sun  for  a  day  or  two 
to  give  him  a  relish  for  fresh  water." 

"  They  keep  no  horses,  it  seems  ?" 

"  No,  they  do  their  own  horse-work.  Those  two  fellows 
that  passed  us  a  while  ago  are  going  down  to  Carcamos, 


132  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

forty  miles  from  here,  and  must  have  crossed  the  Inua 
range  since  morning.  It  will  be  the  roughest  piece  of  our 
trip,  about  fifteen  miles  steadily  up  hill." 

We  were  now  approaching  a  part  of  our  journey  much 
dreaded  by  the  Indians  of  the  Tierra  Caliente,  on  account 
of  the  icy  winds  that  sweep  over  the  backbone  of  the  sierra 
the  year  round.  Wishing  to  have  our  carrier  fresh  for  the 
passage  of  the  mal  pays,  we  made  a  short  day's  march, 
encamping  at  the  mouth  of  a  deep  canon  that  winds  up 
through  the  mountains  to  the  plateau  of  Las  Charcas. 
We  kept  up  a  good  fire,  and  started  before  daybreak  the 
next  morning,  but  found  the  ascent  more  arduous  than  I 
had  anticipated.  We  had  to  climb  over  boulders  and 
fallen  trees,  and  the  canon  is  a  veritable  wind-trap,  a  gate 
of  the  north  wind,  that  drives  and  whirls  through  the 
winding  gorge  with  the  force  of  a  furnace-blast ;  but  the 
worst  was  over  when  we  reached  the  plateau  about  eleven 
A.M.  The  Inua  range  forms  the  dividing  ridge  between 
the  Rio  Raton  and  the  happy  mountain-valleys  of  Eastern 
Jalisco  watered  by  the  streams  of  the  Sierra  Madre  and 
the  northern  tributaries  of  Lake  Chapala. 

We  were  now  more  than  four  thousand  feet  above  our 
last  camp,  and  at  least  ten  thousand  above  the  sea,  which 
was  hidden  by  the  Coast  Range,  and  farther  north  by  a 
yellowish  haze,  probably  the  dust-clouds  of  the  Vega. 
The  vegetation  of  these  heights  is  almost  arctic, — broom- 
furze,  lichens,  and  rock-berries  [Vaceinium  boreale).  In 
sheltered  places  I  saw  hedges  of  dwarf  rose-bay,  and  here 
and  there  a  few  larger  birch-trees.  The  birch,  rather  than 
the  pine,  is  the  polar  tree  j^or  excellence,  for  the  plurality 
of  our  Northern  Coniferse  grow  in  the  tropics  as  well,  or 
better,  while  north  of  the  last  dwarf-fir  regions  the  hills  of 
Siberia  are  still  covered  with  birch  forests. 


i 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  J 33 

"  There  used  to  be  a  tavern  up  here  when  the  Spaniards 
had  a  garrison  at  Carcamos,"  said  my  guide.  "  Do  you 
see  that  trail  up  there  ?  That  leads  to  the  Altar,  as  they 
call  it,  a  promontory  where  you  can  see  the  hornitos  (mud- 
volcanoes)  of  Acubaya." 

"  Is  it  much  out  of  our  way,  that  promontory  ?" 

"  Not  more  than  half  a  league." 

"  All  right :  tell  the  Tuxpan  to  take  it  easy  if  he  is  tired, 
and  let's  have  a  look  at  the  hornitos." 

The  "  Altar"  is  a  projecting  cliff  on  the  northern  de- 
clivity of  the  sierra,  and  affords  a  bird's-eye  view  of  a  little 
tarn  in  the  valley  below.  Close  to  the  foot  of  the  precipice, 
and  apparently  at  the  head  of  the  lake,  are  the  hornitos, 
five  or  six  intermittent  geysers  whose  outlets  were  hardly 
visible  from  our  standpoint.  But  every  now  and  then  one 
of  them  emitted  a  puff  of  white  steam  which  I  should  have 
mistaken  for  I  don't  know  what  if  I  had  seen  it  unex- 
pectedly. The  declivity  being  almost  perpendicular,  we 
could  not  perceive  the  vertical  expansion  of  the  cloudlets, 
which  dissolved  almost  as  soon  as  they  appeared,  but  for  a 
moment  looked  like  little  white  balls  which  suddenly  flat- 
tened out  to  the  size  of  a  big  round  table,  and  vanished 
abruptly  before  the  end  of  the  next  second. 

We  made  up  for  lost  time  when  our  trail  turned  into  a 
grassy  valley  with  an  easy  down-grade,  and  reached  a  good 
wagon-road  before  dark  at  tiie  bank  of  the  Rio  Pan-ill, 
and,  as  Jos6  believed,  about  fifteen  miles  from  the  Hacienda 
del  Monte. 

Florida  derives  its  name  from  Pascua  Florida  (Palm 
Sunday),  but  the  true  flower-land  of  our  continent  is  the 
terrace-region  between  the  Val  de  Jalisco  and  tiie  high- 
lands of  Western  Zacatecas.  The  morning  air  was  satu- 
rated with  the  perfume  of  wild  jessamine,  and  the  creeks 


134  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

below  our  camp  were  almost  hidden  by  a  rank  growth  of 
Veronica  pungens,  with  flowers  like  those  of  a  light-blue 
variety  of  forget-me-not,  while  the  slopes  on  both  sides  of 
our  road  were  covered  with  larkspur,  foxgloves,  white 
euphorbia,  rhododendrons,  and  orange-colored  asclepias. 
The  blue  elder  (Sambucus  jpuhescens)  was  still  in  bloom, 
and,  with  an  undergrowth  of  currants  and  wild  licorice, 
formed  dense  hedges  along  the  creek.  Game  seemed  to 
abound  in  these  thickets :  we  heard  the  whistle  of  plovers 
and  different  varieties  of  partridges,  and  met  a  man  at  the 
creek  who  had  just  gutted  and  cleaned  a  large  bundle  of 
gazapos,  or  mule-ear  rabbits. 

"  Que  provecho  f  (What  luck  ?),  said  he.  "  Oh"— 
seeing  the  carrier — "you  are  travelling,  it  seems,  de  par 
abajo''  (from  down  below), — "  from  the  coast,  I  suppose  ?" 

"Yes,  we  left  San  Bias  last  Thursday,"  I  replied. 
"  You  are  in  luck  this  morning,  to  judge  by  that  string  of 
gazapos." 

"  Sin  mejora^^  (Hobson's  choice),  said  he.  "  My  dog 
started  a  fox  this  morning,  and  that's  the  last  I  saw  of 
him.  These  brakes  are  full  of  turkeys  and  peccaris,  and 
our  Indians  reported  bear-tracks  last  week.  Let's  cross 
this  creek :  there  is  a  better  road  on  the  other  side." 

"That's  Padre  Felipe,  the  governor's  major-domo," 
Avhispered  Jos6 :  "  you  have  a  good  chance  to  deliver  that 
letter  now." 

"This  valley  of  yours  is  the  prettiest  in  the  State,"  I 
observed, — "just  the  place  for  a  country-seat.  Do  you 
know  Governor  Cardenas,  who  owns  a  hacienda  somewhere 
in  this  neighborhood?" 

"  I  saw  him  half  an  hour  ago:  he's  my  boss,  sir.    Why?" 

"Would  you  please  to  hand  him  this  letter?  It  would 
save  me  the  necessity  of  troubling  him  at  the  hacienda." 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  I35 

"  He  will  blow  me  up  for  not  bringing  you  along.  Are 
you  going  east  ?" 

"  Yes,  to  the  Sierra  Madre  by  way  of  the  Indian  vil- 
lages." 

"  To  Canadas  ?" 

"  That's  where  we  shall  stop  to-night." 

"  Well,  come  this  way,  then  :  I'll  put  you  on  tlie  direct 
road,  sir.     Let's  take  a  short  cut  through  this  bottom." 

We  followed  a  trail  running  nearly  parallel  with  the 
creek  through  a  rank  jungle  of  brambles  and  wild  licorice, 
interspersed  with  copses  of  alder  and  white  mulberry  trees. 
I  was  making  some  inquiries  about  the  security  of  the  sierra 
roads,  when  suddenly  my  Indian  caught  me  by  the  arm 
and  pointed  in  the  direction  of  a  rambla  or  dry  ravine  at 
our  right-hand  side.  In  the  gravel-bed  of  the  rambla,  at  a 
distance  of  some  two  hundred  yards,  I  saw  an  animal  about 
the  size  of  a  large  hog  engaged  in  rooting  the  ground  below 
a  little  copse  of  alder-bushes.  The  hunter,  too,  following 
the  direction  of  my  gaze,  had  stopped  and  cocked  his  gun. 

"That's  a  maranon  boar,"  he  whispered,  "but  too  con- 
founded far  for  my  shot-gun.  One  of  your  barrels  is  rifled, 
I  see :  do  you  think  it  would  reach  there  ?" 

"  I  can  try.  Stand  still,  Josey,"  said  I ;  and,  resting  the 
rifle  on  his  shoulder,  I  covered  the  broadside  of  the  mara- 
non and  pulled  the  trigger.  At  the  report  the  boar  jumped 
convulsively  into  the  rambla,  snapped  at  his  haunche.^, 
and  glared  around  in  a  bewildered  way. 

Before  I  could  give  him  the  second  barrel  he  made  a 
dash  at  the  alder-bushes  and  plunged  into  the  jungle  to  the 
left,  as  if  trying  to  reach  the  creek-bed  a  little  ahead  of  us. 
We  heard  his  rush  through  the  brambles,  but  almost  at  the 
same  moment  a  piercing  scream  and  quickly-repeated  cries 
for  help.     As  if  seized  with  the  same  idea,  we  all  ran 


136  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

toward  the  creek  at  the  top  of  our  speed,  and  had  hardly 
emerged  from  the  thicket  when  an  Indian  boy  leaped  into 
the  creek,  followed  two  seconds  after  by  the  wounded  boar, 
who,  happily,  stumbled  at  the  edge  of  the  bank,  and  fell, 
rather  than  jumped,  into  the  gravel  below.  Before  he  re- 
covered his  legs  our  guns  went  off  like  a  single  shot,  and 
the  maranon  sank  back  and  rolled  into  the  creek.  The  boy, 
who  had  thrown  himself  headlong  into  the  canebrake,  now 
recrossed  the  water  and  met  us  at  the  foot  of  the  gravel- 
bank,  still  sobbing  and  trembling  with  excitement.  He 
had  been  picking  fox-grapes  in  the  jungle  when  he  heard 
the  first  shot,  and,  looking  up,  saw  the  boar  charging 
through  the  bushes  directly  toward  him,  and,  throwing  his 
basket  down,  turned  and  ran  for  his  life.  He  stumbled 
twice,  and  came  within  an  ace  of  sharing  the  fate  of  Adonis 
before  he  reached  the  creek,  and  by  a  lucky  instinct  leaped, 
rather  than  climbed,  down  the  steep  bank. 

"  Do  you  think  you  could  remember  this  place  ?"  asked 
the  major-domo,  reloading  his  gun  with  great  complacency. 

"  Yes,  sir,"  still  snivelling. 

"  Well,  get  your  basket,  then,  and  go  home  and  tell  your 
father  to  hitch  up  one  of  the  black  mules  and  drag  the 
maranon  home.  You  show  him  the  way  and  I'll  make  it 
all  right  with  you  to-night." 

We  resumed  our  path,  and  after  an  hour  of  devious 
marching  and  chatting  came  upon  a  well-beaten  country 
road  that  led  in  the  direction  of  the  northern  mountains. 

"  Well,  sir,  take  care  of  yourself,"  said  the  major-domo. 
"  If  I  could  get  a  day's  furlough,  I  should  like  to  pilot  you 
through  to  the  sierra ;  but  you  can't  miss  the  way  now  as 
far  as  Cailadas,  and  it  seems  you  have  a  good  guide  of  your 
own.  Buen  viaje  !  Be  sure  now  and  send  me  a  bottle  of 
wedding-whiskey,  Don  Jos6." 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS. 


137 


"  All  right,  paclrecito,"  laughed  the  guide,  "  but  don't 
forget  tiuit  r  want  you  to  baptize  my  first  child." 


"  It  seems  you  know  that  man,  Josey  ?"  I  asked  when 
we  continued  our  way. 

"  Yes,  he  is  the  governor's  overseer, — the  funniest  rake 
you  could  find  on  this  side  the  Rio  Grande." 

"  What  makes  you  call  him  padre  f     Is  he  a  priest?" 

"  He's  a  runaway  monk,  sir,  and  that's  the  reason  the 
governor  engaged  him  :  it  tickles  iiim  all  over  to  have  a 
fighting  and  drinking  padre  on  his  place." 


138  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

''  Doesn't  that  set  the  rest  of  tlie  clergy  against  the  gov- 


ernor?" 

"  Yes,  but  what  does  he  care  ?  He  owns  six  square 
leagues  of  farming-land  in  this  valley,  and  the  priests 
would  break  each  other's  necks  to  please  him." 

We  had  just  deposited  our  traps  under  an  old  hackberry- 
tree  to  take  a  little  rest  and  a  bit  of  dinner,  when  two 
horses  trotted  around  the  corner  of  the  hill,  and  we  thought 
we  recognized  our  friend  the  major-domo  on  a  pony,  leading 
a  saddle-horse. 

"  Yes,  that's  he,"  said  Jose :  "  maybe  he  is  going  to  ac- 
company us  to  the  sierra." 

"  Never  mind  those  cakes  now,"  said  he,  reining  up  his 
pony  at  our  tree.  "  I  knew  the  governor  would  read  me 
the  lesson  of  the  day  for  leaving  you  behind.  He  sees  by 
that  letter  that  you  are  going  to  visit  the  Indian  temples 
near  Mayapan.  You  are  on  the  wrong  road,  then :  the 
ruins  are  only  twelve  miles  from  here,  but  more  than  twenty 
from  Caiiadas,  so  you  might  as  Avell  make  the  hacienda 
your  head-quarters.  You  had  better  take  this  horse  if  you 
think  that  your  men  can  find  the  Avay  alone:  the  governor 
is  waiting  for  you  at  the  bridge,  not  far  from  where  I  left 
you." 

A  lank  and  lazy-looking  old  gent  Avas  reclining  on  a 
stone  bench  near  the  bridge,  but  rose  at  our  approach  and 
greeted  me  with  an  oif-hand  military  salute. 

"  I  am  very  sorry,  sir,"  I  began,  "  that  I  was  so  unlucky 
as  to  cause  you  all  this  trouble." 

"  No,  you  are  lucky  enough,"  said  he, — "  doubly  lucky, 
sir,  that  we  have  a  priest  here  to  absolve  you,  and  that  he 
caught  you  so  quick,  for  you  may  be  very  sure  that  I  would 
have  fetched  you  back  from  the  other  side  of  the  sierra. 
No,  sir,  that  would  never  do, — a  travelling  foreigner  recom- 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  J 39 

mended  by  my  best  friend  in  America,  and  going  to  |)a.ss 
my  place  to  sleep  in  a  thundering  hole  of  a  Greaser  wig- 
wam !  Besides,  'tis  Sunday  to-morrow,  when  a  gentleman 
mustn't  endanger  his  Christian  soul  by  any  kind  of  labor, 
such  works  of  charity  and  necessity  as  cock-fighting  and 
gambling  excepted." 

The  senor  seemed,  indeed,  to  be  as  independent  in  his 
habits  as  in  his  opinions.  He  smoked  common  tobacco  in 
what  looked  very  much  like  a  Kentucky  corn-cob  pipe,  and 
was  the  first  Mexican  I  met  who  had  sense  enough  to  dis- 
card the  cumbrous  sombrero  in  the  cool  air  of  the  high- 
land districts.     He  wore  a  sort  of  forage-cap. 

I  have  often  found  that  the  scepticism  of  Northern  Prot- 
estants has  a  deistic  bias,  while  that  of  the  Roman  Catholics 
tends  toward  pyrrhonism  and  cynicism,  and  I  suspect  that 
the  present  century  has  been  rather  prolific  of  French  and 
Spanish  apostates  from  the  Thaumaturgic  Church,  who 
would  feel  perfectly  at  home  in  the  haunts  of  Diagoras  and 
Petronius  Arbiter.  Ex-Governor  Cardenas,  too,  was  a 
couple  of  ages  either  behind  or  ahead  of  the  speculative 
standpoint  of  his  countrymen,  and  astounded  me  by  the  free- 
dom of  his  remarks,  though  I  had  reasons  to  surmise  that 
Mr.  Mackenzie's  letter  had  indicated  my  dogmatic  status. 

The  Hacienda  del  Monte  had  been  built  for  a  Spanish 
fort,  and  the  orthodox  inhabitants  of  the  scattered  village 
at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  might  have  subjective  rea.sons 
for  postponing  a  crusade  against  a  heretic  who  could  answer 
their  arguments  with  a  cross-fire  from  two  howitzers  at 
either  corner  of  his  parapet;  but  the  ordnance,  though 
apparently  in  good  working  order,  was  kc])t  as  a  relics 
rather  than  as  an  ultima  ratio.  The  Jalisco  ])agans,  who 
should  have  valued  the  sceptic  as  a  natural  ally,  avoided 
him  for  political  reasons,  but  his  tenants  worshipped  iiim 


140 


SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


HACIENDA    DEL    MONTE. 


as  a  liberal  and  indulgent  master,  and  had  attested  their 
confidence  by  electing  him  their  corregidor,  or  justice  of  the 
j)eace,  and  matters  in  general  seemed  to  be  conducted  on 
the  live-and-let-live  principle.  From  my  window,  which 
overlooked  the  old  parade-ground,  I  could  see  the  prepara- 
tions for  a  granfundon  de  toros  (a  solemn  bull-fight)  which 
was  to  come  off  on  the  festival  of  Santa  Maria  de  Guade- 
loupe in  a  week  or  two  ;  and  the  senor's  retainers  all  looked 
healthier  and  more  cheerful  than  the  half-starved  serfs  of 
the  average  hacienda,  for  he  refused  to  take  advantage  of 
tlie  peonage  law,*  and  paid  his  domestics  and  day-laborers 


*The  old  Spanish  and  modern  Mexican  law,  which  authorizes  a 
crwlitor  to  enslave  an  insolvent  debtor. 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  14X 

at  the  uniform  rate  of  two  reals  a  day.  Tlie  major-domo 
being  a  disciple  of  St.  Dominic,  and  very  apt  to  win  at 
cards,  received  no  direct  compensation,  but  was  instructed 
to  apply  for  funds  whenever  his  patron  saint  should  fail  to 
anticipate  his  wants. 

The  hall  was  crowded  with  country-people,  it  being  the 
sefior's  justicing  day  ;  but  ho  promised  to  join  us  before 
supper,  and  in  the  mean  time  recommended  me  to  the 
spiritual  guardianship  of  Father  Felipe.  After  mounting 
the  watch-tower  and  admiring  the  panorama  and  the  gover- 
nor's armory,  w'e  descended  into  the  casemates,  and  bv  ;in 
exterior  stairway  into  the  com't-yard.  Behind  the  bastion 
there  was  a  large  water-tank,  fed  by  a  primitive  aqueduct, 
and  supplying  in  its  turn  a  fountain  at  the  opposite  end  of 
the  parade-ground.  The  basin  of  the  fountain  had  been 
constructed  from  the  foundation-walls  of  the  old  guard- 
house, and  a  rock-built  cell  between  the  guard-house  and 
the  parapet  was  now  occupied  by  a  prisoner  for  life,  a  fat 
grizzly  bear,  who  seemed  to  expect  his  dinner  when  we 
approached  his  den,  for  he  turned  round  and  rouud,  licking 
his  jaws  in  an  evident  state  of  self-gratulation.  He  had 
been  caught  very  young,  and  during  his  minority  had  been 
taught  to  posture  on  his  hind  legs,  to  play  'possum,  and 
various  other  tricks.  He  used  to  volunteer  performances, 
the  major-domo  said,  but  lately  required  an  external  stim- 
ulus. Whenever  he  omitted  any  essential  part  of  the  pre- 
scribed evolutions,  or  gave  other  signs  of  being  in  the  sulks, 
they  softened  his  heart  by  turning  the  squirt  of  the  foun- 
tain upon  him.  He  looked  thougiitful,  but  by  no  means 
very  ferocious. 

"  No,"  said  the  padre,  "  chaining  seems  to  spoil  their 
pluck.  Do  you  see  that  little  fellow  there?"  pointing  to 
an  Indian  lad  who  was  filling  a  j)ail  at  the  fountain.    "The 


142  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

grizzly  broke  out  a  year  ago,  and  got  through  the  sally-port 
before  we  knew  it,  but  that  boy  overtook  him  and  kept 
him  at  bay  with  a  common  cudgel  till  our  moiitador''  (horse- 
breaker)  *'  lassoed  him  and  dragged  him  home  like  a  calf." 

"  That  little  chap  looks  as  if  he  would  make  a  good 
montador  himself  some  day." 

"  He's  the  most  impudent  puppy  I  ever  saw ;  but  we 
can't  get  rid  of  liim,  he's  the  governor's  pet." 

"  An  orphan,  I  suppose  ?" 

"  Worse  than  that.  He  was  whelped  in  one  of  the 
Jaliscano  wigwams,  and  came  down  here  every  other  week 
or  so  with  a  gang  of  hucksters  or  wood-choppers  ;  but  one 
Easter  Sunday  they  happened  to  come  in  with  a  load  of 
huckleberries,  when  we  had  a  dance  and  music  in  the  house, 
and  his  comrades  stayed  all  day  to  retail  their  berries, 
and  made  something  like  five  dollars  before  night.  But  in 
the  evening  this  boy  got  beastly  drunk,  and  the  rest  of 
them  went  away  and  left  him  asleep  in  the  straw-shed,  and 
our  foolish  cook  kept  him  full  of  brandy  for  three  or  four 
days.  We  wanted  to  send  him  back  that  week,  but — what 
do  you  think? — before  we  could  start  him  off  his  mother 
came  in  howling  and  crying,  and  asked  the  governor,  for 
all  the  gods'  sakes,  to  keep  her  boy  and  not  send  him  home, 
because  his  father  had  loaded  a  musketoon  and  sworn  to 
shoot  him  at  sight,  and  the  chiefs  confirmed  him  in  his 
purpose.     That  was  three  years  ago." 

"  And  you  have  had  to  keep  him  ever  since?" 

"  No  '  had  to'  about  it,"  grunted  the  padre ;  "  but  the 
governor  would  not  let  him  go.  He's  very  sensible  in 
some  ways,  our  ])oss  is,  but  he  has  a  queer  penchant  for 
saddling  himself  with  useless  retainers.  Of  which  pen- 
chant I  myself  am  perhaps  the  most  striking  illustration," 
he  added,  seeing  me  smile.     "  Well,  it  takes  all  kinds  of 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  143 

pets  to  complete  a  menagerie.  I  could  mention  another 
instance  of  his  mania.  We  have  a  bull  in  that  grass-<^ar(len 
back  there  who  has  been  smashino-  fences  and  frightening 
om-  neighbors  out  of  their  wits  for  the  last  ten  months,  but 
our  boss  refuses  to  shoot  him.  The  brute  was  ruled  out  of 
the  arena  for  killing  three  bull-tighters  in  succession, — two 
at  Mazatlan  and  one  at  Carcamos, — so  they  sold  hinl  to  a 
butcher,  but  the  governor  redeemed  him,  and  kee])S  him 
for  a  scarecrow  to  frighten  the  ladies." 

"  He  is  a  bachelor,  it  seems  ?" 

"  No,  but  he  is  a  widower,  and  he  wants  to  die  a.s  'Afreed- 
man,  he  says." 

"  You  ought  to  convert  him  from  that  purpose." 

"  Well,  you  may  try  it,  but  at  your  own  peril :  it  is  the 
one  thing  that  never  fails  to  bring  him  on  his  hind  legs." 

"  I  should  like  to  take  a  look  at  those  ruins  to-morrow," 
said  I :  "do  you  think  he  will  seriously  object  to  a  Sunday 
trip?" 

"  No,  no,  not  if  your  time  is  limited ;  but  I'm  afraid 
that  he  couldn't  accompany  you.  You  may  have  noticed 
that  he  is  almost  lame :  he  got  a  shot  through  the  knee- 
joint  during  the  French  war,  and  his  leg  has  got  worse 
again.     But  I  could  go  if  you  want  to  take  me  along." 

"  Well,  please  to  get  me  permission,  then." 

When  we  were  seated  at  supj^er  two  visitors  were  an- 
nounced,— a  horse-dealer  and  the  Padre  Timoteo,  the  village 
priest. 

"  Show  them  in  liere,"  said  the  hospitable  sefior.  The 
trader  excused  himself  after  settling  a  little  bill,  but  the 
padre  was  persuaded  to  stay,  and  took  a  seat  at  the  table 
at  the  side  of  the  ex-Dominican.  Of  the  two  padres,  the 
major-domo  was  decidedly  the  more  respectable.  He  wa.s 
evidently  trying  to  restrict  the  conversation  to  secular  topics, 


144  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

but  liis  neighbor  encouraged  the  governor's  sallies  by  burst- 
ing every  now  and  then  into  a  fit  of  uncontrollable  laughter, 
or  modified  his  repartees  in  a  way  that  seemed  to  invite  a 
bolder  attack. 

"  Never  mind,  you  will  change  your  opinions  before  you 
cross  the  big  ferry,"  said  he,  with  his  mouth  full  of  pork- 
pie  :  "  you  would  have  sent  for  a  priest  mighty  quick  if 
the  Frencli  had  captured  you  that  time,  just  as  your  father 
jlid  when  the  Spaniards  boxed  him  up  in  Vera  Cruz." 
•\  "  You  needn't  keep  throwing  my  father  in  my  teeth," 
said  the  governor.  "  My  father  admitted  that  he  believed 
in  a  future  existence,  because  he  could  not  get  a  fair  show 
in  this  world,  but  you  may  be  very  sure  that  he  did  not 
join  any  church.  He  did  not  part  with  his  senses  alto- 
gether." 

"  Valgame Dios !"  cried  the  padre,  "que  hombre  tan  ara- 
strado .'"  (God  help  me !  what  an  eccentric  fellow  this  is  !) 
"Santa  Maria  Purjssima T'  and  he  laughed  till  the  shaking 
of  his  paunch  threatened  him  with  suffocation. 

"  Protestantism  is  the  established  religion  in  the  States, 
isn't  it  ?"  asked  the  senor. 

"  We  have  no  established  dogmas,  sir,  except  universal 
toleration  and  a  Sunday  law  or  two." 

"  Oh  yes,  I  forgot :  pantheonic  and  pandemonic  liberty 
and  equality ;  and  that's  the  soundest  plan.  Let  men  and 
gods  stand  and  fall  by  their  own  merits." 

"  So  you  would  prefer  our  system  ?" 

"  Yes,  as  a  man  I  would ;  but,  being  a  superhuman  gov- 
ernor, I  prefer  an  idolatrous  country  like  our  own.  But 
your  institutions  have  always  interested  me  more  than  those 
of  any  other  nation,  because  they  alone  afford  an  oppor- 
tunity of  testing  many  curious  theories  by  a  practical  ex- 
periment.    Give  every  one  a  fair  start :  tliat's  the  wav  to 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  I45 

find    out  if   Africans  can   compete   with    Caucasians   and 
women  with  men," 

"Do  you  approve  the  woman's-rights  movement?"  I 
asked,  with  a  glance  at  Father  Felipe. 

"I  can  at  least  explain  it,"  said  the  heretic.  "Since  tiie 
world  has  got  so  full  of  effeminate  men,  he-coquettes,  man- 
milliners,  and  perfumed  dandies,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
girls  think  themselves  able  to  beiit  us  at  our  own  game,  and 
want  to  profit  by  that  ability.  In  a  manlier  age,  like  thq^ 
fourteenth  century,  when  our  forcfathei's  hammered  the 
Saracens  in  the  battle  of  Velez  Malaga,  and  made  the 
sparks  fly  from  their  iron  helmets  como  los  giro  el  vicnto'' 
(as  if  the  wind  whirled  them),  "  I  suspect  that  their  ladies 
were  not  so  very  anxious  to  try  their  hands  at  masculine 
trades." 

The  major-domo  waked  me  at  five  o'clock  the  next  morn- 
ing, and  a  little  after  sunrise  we  mounted  a  pair  of  glossy 
mules  at  the  lower  sally-port. 

"  You  must  take  the  consequences  of  your  impiety," 
laughed  the  seiior  when  he  limped  to  the  gate  to  wish  me 
a  good-morning.  "  I  told  Father  Felipe  that  I  wash  my 
hands  of  this  business,  but  lie  assures  me  that  I  can  rely 
on  his  Judgment  in  matters  of  casuistry.  Well,  I  wish 
you  a  happy  trip,"  said  he,  "and  I  think  you  will  be 
pleased  with  the  scenery.  There  is  a  famous  view  from 
the  ruins  of  Mayapan,  and  the  Val  de  San  Juan  is  said  to 
be  the  most  magnificent  in  the  State,  though  I  do  not  doubt 
that  you  have  seen  finer  valleys  in  France  and  Italy." 

"France  has  no  sierras,"  I  replied,  "and  Italy  no  forests. 
No,  sii':  Mexico  is  the  most  beautiful  country  of  the  present 
world,  and  it  would  be  the  happiest,  too,  if  you  would  just 
content  yourselves  with  a  reasonable  number  of  revolutions, 
— say  one  in  four  years  or  so." 


146 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


TEMPLE     RUINS    Oi    MA^APAN 


"  Yes,"  said  the  sefior,  "  they 
are  a  grievous  nuisance,  but" — 
with  a  sort  of  shudder — "  I  mu^t 
confess  that  they  are  still  the 
lesser  evil,  though  I  am  myself 
of  Spanish  descent.  Even  ab- 
solute anarchy  would  be  more 
endurable  than  the  yoke  of  a  so- 
called  man*  who  embroidered  a 
petticoat  for  the  Virgin  Mary." 

Before  the  Jaliscanos  retired  to  their  present  strongholds 
in  the  upper  sierra  they  had  a  large  village  near  the  hamlet 
of  Mayapan,  where  their  sachems  resided  and  where  their 
priests  assembled  the  nation  after  a  successful  war  and  on 
other  solemn  occasions.     Here  also  are  the  ruins  of  the 


*  Charles  lY.  of  Spain,  who  employed  his  leisure  in  embroidering 
gowns  and  chemises  for  an  image  of  the  Holy  Virgin  in  the  chapel 
of  San  lldefonso. 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  147 

great  temple  of  Catascotl,  the  fire-god,  the  Pluto  of  the 
Toltec  pantheon,  whose  palaces  are  the  volcanoes,  and  who 
has  his  headquarters  in  the  subterranean  halls  of  tlie  Sierra 
Madre,  where  he  dwells  with  the  spirits  of  the  Toltec  war- 
rior-kings, and  where  his  voice  can  be  heard  during  an 
earthquake. 

We  reached  the  site  of  this  temple  after  a  leisurely  ride 
of  five  or  six  hours;  and  I  think  that  in  extent,  as  well  as 
in  the  elaboration  of  the  bas-reliefs  and  sculptured  terraces, 
its  ruins  surpass  those  of  any  single  edifice  in  Yucatan  or 
Central  America.  It  stands  on  the  western  brink  of  a 
plateau  that  commands  a  magnificent  view  of  the  Tierra 
Caliente,  a  portion  of  the  Bay  of  Mazatlan,  and  the  Coast 
Range,  with  the  two  peaks  of  Culiacan  and  Penasco ;  and 
the  broad  platform  of  the  upper  terrace  must  have  been  an 
exquisite  place  for  a  national  assembly  of  mountaineers. 
There  seems  to  have  been  a  vault  under  the  terrace,  for  the 
platform  is  full  of  crevices  and  holes  that  form  regular 
man-traps,  so  that  the  interior  of  the  temple  is  generally 
approached  from  the  north,  through  a  breach  which  the 
guides  or  stone-robbers  have  opened  through  a  rubbish- 
mound  of  sand  and  broken  columns.  So  far  as  I  could 
judge  by  the  vestiges  of  partition- walls,  the'  enclosure  was 
divided  into  three  halls, — two  smaller  ones  at  the  western 
entrance  and  a  larger  one  at  the  east  end,  where  a  recess  is 
blocked  up  with  the  fragments  of  a  massive  rostrum  or 
altar-platform.  The  friezes  of  a  cluster  of  pilasters  on 
either  side  are  ornamented  with  bas-reliefs  and  stuccoes 
which  I  might  describe  as  sculptured  mosaic,  the  figures 
being  composed  of  close-fitting  stones  fastened  with  a  vit- 
reous cement,  which  the  crumbling  of  the  main  wall  has 
dislodged  here  and  there.  This  platform,  as  well  as  the 
niches  in  the  south  wall,  were  formerly  full  of  statues,  but 


148  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

they  have  all  been  removed,  and  only  torsos  and  broken 
pedestals  can  still  be  found  in  the  rubbish-heaps. 

The  smaller  idols  were  carried  oft*  by  clerical  and  anti- 
quarian vandals,  and  some  of  the  larger  ones  may  yet  be 
seen  in  the  next  lowland  villages,  stuck  up  in  the  flower- 
gardens  like  termini  or  doing  duty  as  easy-chairs  and 
hitching-posts.  The  masonry  of  the  side- walls  is  a  heap 
of  debris,  and  the  fapade  is  sadly  demolished,  but  the  south 
wall  is  better  preserved,  the  outside  cornice  being  sculp- 
tured in  its  entire  extent,  while  the  lower  part  is  covered 
with  lapidary  inscriptions  whose  hieroglyphics,  reduced  to 
the  size  of  common  print,  would  fill  about  two  of  these 
pages. 

My  cicerone  described  a  rather  problematic  eidolon  which 
was  taken  from  this  temple  and  is  now  in  the  possession 
of  the  alcalde  or  mayor  of  Carcamos, — a  well-chiselled  figure 
four  feet  long  and  about  a  foot  in  diameter,  cut  apparently 
out  of  a  single  block  of  magnesian  limestone  or  coarse 
marble,  of  which  the  one  half  is  yellow  and  the  other 
almost  jet  black,  the  dividing-line  running  vertically  and 
along  the  profile  of  the  face.  Tradition  says  that  in  a  still 
more  ancient  temple  six  miles  farther  northwest  the  Jalis- 
canos  had  a  sort  of  national  palladium,  known  as  the 
"Marvel  of  Atocha,"  a  large  statue  or  column  which 
looked  grayish-white  and  semi-transparent  in  daytime,  but 
became  luminous  after  dark,  and  was  supposed  to  be  a 
miraculous  symbol  of  the  moon. 

The  dwelling-houses  I  saw  were  generally  stone-built, 
but  low,  and  with  mere  loopholes  for  windows,  yet  they 
have  one  larger  building  in  the  hamlet  of  Villapaterna, 
where  they  store  the  saltpetre  produce  of  the  neighboring 
limestone  caves  and  manufacture  their  own  gunpowder, 
while  the  Christian  proprietors  of  private  powder-factories 


THE    WESTERN  SIERRAS.  \\0) 

are  hounded  by  revenue  officers  like  the  nocturnal  whiskey 
distillers  of  our  Southern  Alleghanies.  They  pay  no  tithes 
and  raise  a  good  deal  of  tobacco,  which  also  is  a  govern- 
ment monopoly  in  the  lowlands. 

These  and  other  privileges  make  them  rather  obnoxious 
to  their  Christian  neighbors,  whom  they  scandalize  besides 
by  their  passionate  adherence  to  the  religious  rites  and 
mysteries  of  their  forefathers.  When  the  south  wind  melts 
the  snow  of  Tierra  Fria  and  the  chestnut  forests  are  in 
bloom,  they  celebrate  a  May  festival  [fiesta  de  Mayo),  a 
kind  of  thanksgiving  demonstration  inspired  by  the  re- 
awakening of  Nature  from  her  winter  trance,  like  the 
Feast  of  Tabernacles  and  the  Roman  Lupercalia.  Later 
in  the  year,  either  in  September  or  the  beginning  of  October, 
they  assemble  for  a  grand  carousal  of  three  or  four  days, 
followed  by  athletic  games,  wrestling,  running,  and  sjiear- 
throwing. 

Every  village  has  its  wrestling-ring,  where  the  contests 
of  the  young  men  divert  the  chiefs  and  wigwam  belles  in 
the  cool  of  the  evening ;  and  this  passion  for  manly  exer- 
cises, as  well  as  their  resolute  abstinence  from  the  seductive 
beverages  of  their  enemies,  distinguishes  them  favorably 
from  other  tribes  of  the  American  race,  and  is  probably  tlie 
secret  of  their  success  in  maintaining  their  religious  and 
political  independence.  Though  they  still  occupy  the 
larger  part  of  the  great  Sierra  de  San  Juan,  they  have  lost 
at  least  nine-tenths  of  their  ancient  territory,  but  they  liave 
preserved  their  health  and  their  freedom,  and,  in  spite  of 
their  present  poverty,  are  probably  the  happiest  inhabitants 
of  the  Spanish  American  highlands. 

Two  miles  north  of  Villapaterna,  on  a  level  plateau  of 
about  a  hundred  square  yards,  is  the  tomb  of  a  famous 
chieftain  who  checked  the  advance  of  the  Conquistadore^ 

10 


150  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and,  from  his  many 
miraculous  escapes,  was  long  supposed  to  be  bullet-proof. 
He  is  said  to  liave  made  a  charge  into  a  fortified  Spanish 
camp  in  broad  daylight  in  order  to  recover  a  golden  image 
of  Catascotl ;  and  when  the  enemy  captured  his  son  he 
abducted  the  wife  of  the  governor  of  Sinaloa,  to  hold  her 
as  a  counter-hostage. 

Near  the  tomb  was  a  wrestling-ring,  and  an  obelisk- 
shaped  monument  which  the  fire-worshippers  of  Jalisco 
erected  in  honor  of  their  god  when  the  large  pyramid  of 
Carcamos  was  destroyed  by  the  Spanish  fanatics,  about  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  monument  is  in  ruins 
now,  and  the  best  sculptured  stones  of  the  pedestal  have 
been  employed  in  the  construction  of  the  Franciscan  con- 
vent of  Las  Animas  near  San  Cristoval.  The  temple  on 
the  promontory,  too,  was  thus  repeatedly  despoiled  by  the 
inhabitants  of  San  Renaldo ;  but  it  may  console  the  wor- 
shippers of  Catascotl  to  remember  that  the  sacrilege  has 
been  avenged  by  many  a  church-destroying  earthquake, 
and  that  the  god  will  not  lack  a  monument  while  the  vol- 
cano of  Culiacan  lifts  his  snow-capped  pyramid  above  the 
clouds  and  superstitions  of  the  lower  world. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    SIERRA     MADRE. 

The  gods  that  left  the  lower  world 

Still  haunt  the  mountain  solitudes. — Ciiamisso. 

During  my  absence  Seilor  Cardenas  had  ascertained 
that  the  mountains  of  Queretaro  were  infested  with  the 
fugitive  guerillas  of  Pedro  Mendez,  who  had  retreated  to 
his  native  State  after  his  defeat  in  the  north.  For  greater 
security,  therefore,  as  well  as  to  make  up  for  lost  time,  I 
adopted  the  senor's  advice  to  take  the  stage-coach  to  Cuer- 
navaca  and  Tehuacan,  and  reach  the  Sierra  Madre  by  way 
of  Orizaba. 

We  passed  through  the  historic  valley  of  Anahuac,  where 
the  fate  of  Mexico  was  four  times  decided, — by  the  troops 
of  Cortes,  Iturbide,  Scott,  and  Bazaine, — and  on  tiie  fiftli 
day  reached  the  little  mountain-village  of  Acolcingo,  in 
the  Sierra  Madre,  where  we  readjusted  our  packs  and 
resumed  our  work  before  daybreak  the  next  morning. 

From  the  head-waters  of  the  Rio  Blanco  to  the  Peak  of 
Santander  the  slopes  of  the  sierra  are  diversified  with  grassy 
terraces,  holm-oaks,  groves  of  larch-trcos,  cliffs  of  fantastic 
shapes,  and  incipient  valleys  dotted  with  patches  of  straw- 
berries and  flowering  rhododendrons ;  and  in  August,  when 
the  berries  ripen,  and  the  days  are  warm  enough  to  make 
the  shade  of  the  larcli-groves  agreeable,  tiiese  heights  would 
afford  play-grounds  for  all  the  scliool-children  and  tourists 

161 


152  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

between  St.  Petersburg  and  San  Francisco.  In  the  park- 
like  middle  region  between  the  continuous  forests  of  the 
foot-hills  and  the  upper  limits  of  all  arboreal  vegetation, 
the  fauna  resembles  that  of  our  Southern  Alleghanies ; 
black-tail  deer  and  rabbits  prefer  the  fine  grass  and  the 
aromatic  mountain-herbs  to  the  rank  vegetation  of  the  lower 
valleys ;  the  ravines  are  frequented  by  a  long-legged  variety 
of  mountain-grouse  [Tetrao  tetrix)  that  rely  on  their  pedal- 
istic  agility  and  decline  to  take  wing  at  your  approach ; 
black  and  gray  squirrels  divide  the  larch-nuts  with  a  little 
bird  of  the  cross-bill  kind,  and  the  rhododendron  thickets 
swarm  with  a  white-and-red  spangled  butterfly,  similar  to 
the  Papilio  phoebus  of  the  Southern  Alps.  To  judge  l)y 
their  confidence,  the  peace  of  these  free  monteros  is  rarely 
disturbed  by  visitors  from  the  land  of  gunpowder  and 
hunting-dogs.  A  bright-colored  woodpecker,  flitting  about 
the  rocks  in  pursuit  of  his  entomological  researches,  re- 
peatedly prolonged  his  sessions  till  I  could  have  taken  him 
with  my  outstretched  hand,  and  when  we  passed  through  a 
small  holm-oak  grove  a  gray  squirrel  jumped  upon  a  fallen 
log  and  sat  right  in  front  of  us,  chattering  and  switching 
its  tail  as  if  it  had  a  good  mind  to  refuse  us  the  right  of 
passage.  A  few  hundred  yards  farther  up,  from  the  top  of 
an  overhanging  cliif  where  we  rested  a  few  minutes,  Jos6 
started  a  big  boulder  and  sent  it  bounding  toward  the  foot- 
hills, but  a  projecting  rock  deflected  it  to  the  right  and  into 
the  little  holm-oak  grove  we  had  passed  ten  minutes  ago. 
Not  the  boulder,  but  a  band  of  black-tail  deer,  emerged 
from  the  trees  and  went  through  the  juniper-bushes  and 
round  the  corner  like  a  ^vhirlwind.  As  the  grove  did  not 
contain  more  than  thirty  or  forty  trees,  we  must  have  passed 
within  a  few  steps  of  the  troop,  and  if  they  did  not  see  us, 
they  certainly  must  have  heard  us  talk ;  yet  they  did  not 


THE  SIERRA    MADRE. 


153 


MOUNT    ORIZABA. 


think   it   worth   while  to  interrupt   their  matin6e  on   our 
account. 


154  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

But  the  chief  charm  of  such  mouutain-solitudes  is  their 
primitive  character, — their  eutirely  unimproved  condition, 
as  a  Kansas  farmer  would  say.  No  destruction  of  forests 
and  construction  of  fences  proclaim  here  that  the  sceptre 
of  Nature  has  passed  into  other  hands ;  no  deserts  and  ruins 
remind  you  that  the  Juventus  3Iundi  has  departed  with  the 
youth  of  the  human  race.  Thanks  to  his  blessed  laziness, 
God's  vice-regent  on  earth  has  generally  confined  the  abuse 
of  his  power  to  the  level  lowlands;  and  the  immortals,  who 
wanted  to  keep  their  private  paradise  unprofaned,  did  there- 
fore very  well  to  locate  it  in  the  summit-regions  of  Mount 
Olympus.  For  those  who  can  climb  earth  is  as  young  as 
ever. 

We  had  to  make  a  considerable  d6tour  to  the  left  to 
reach  the  ridge  that  connects  the  volcano  with  the  Sierra 
Madre,  for  the  western  slope  of  the  peak  is  dreadfully 
steep,  and  we  were  unprovided  with  mountaineering-gear, 
as  the  members  of  the  Alpine  Club  call  it, — ropes,  claw- 
shoes,  and  ice-axes.  As  we  approached  the  ridge  the  rock- 
chaos  became  intricate  and  obstructive,  but  the  grade  was 
not  very  steep  here,  and  at  about  nine  a.m.  we  reached  the 
divide  and  beheld  now,  for  the  first  time,  the  eastern  slope  of 
the  North  American  continent.  The  average  height  of  the 
Sierra  Madre  surpasses  that  of  the  Western  Alps  by  more 
than  six  thousand  feet,  and  the  greater  elevation  of  the 
snow-line  makes  the  highlands  far  more  accessible,  but  the 
view  from  the  summits  of  the  Mexican  Cordilleras  owes 
its  peculiar  grandeur  to  the  Avonderful  transparency  of  the 
air.  Nowhere  else  on  earth  is  the  atmosphere  at  the  same 
time  so  humid  and  so  free  from  consolidated  clouds ;  the 
radiation  of  heat  from  the  elevated  table-lands  seems  to 
transfigure  all  gaseous  moisture  into  an  aerial  vapor  that 
reinforces  the  light  it  transmits  and  endows  the  eye  with  a 


THE  SIERRA    MAD  RE.  155 

strange  telescopic  power.  That  haze  of  the  horizon  which 
limits  the  vistas  from  an  Alpine  height  veiled  the  swamp- 
coast  of  Yucatan,  but  in  the  north,  the  east,  and  the  north- 
west the  view  was  only  bounded  by  the  incurvation  of  the 
globe,  and  the  outlines  of  the  peak  of  Culiacan,  on  the 
coast  of  Sinaloa,  appeared  as  sharp  and  distinct  as  those  of 
a  jagged  cliff  at  our  feet.  The  gulf-coast,  from  Northern 
Yucatan  to  the  islands  in  the  Bay  of  Tampico,  is  visible, 
with  all  its  harbors  and  white  beaches ;  the  flag  on  the 
citadel  of  San  Juan  d'Ulloa  appears  and  disap})ears  as  the 
sea-breeze  moves  it;  the  ruins  of  Fort  Antigua,  where 
Cortes  effected  his  first  landing,  can  be  plainly  distinguished 
from  the  surrounding  tower-like  cliffs ;  and  where  water 
and  sky  meet,  in  the  northeast,  the  light-house  on  the 
island  of  Bermejo  glitters  like  a  rising  star.  Farther  to 
the  right  the  peak  of  Las  Milpas  stands  on  the  horizon, 
like  an  outpost  of  the  sierra  that  crowns  the  plateau  of 
Eastern  Yucatan,  and  which  can  be  traced  through  a  suc- 
cession of  snowy  crests  to  the  highlands  of  Guatemala,  in 
the  distant  southwest.  At  your  feet  you  see  the  terrace- 
land  of  Vera  Cruz,  a  vast  chaos  of  gray  rocks  and  sombre 
pines,  rising  above  the  undulating  foot-hills  with  their 
tarns  and  pleasant  groves ;  farther  down,  the  table-land, 
intersected  by  deep  ravines  and  dotted  witli  settlements 
here  and  there ;  and  below  that,  the  tierra  callente,  with  its 
evergreen  forests  that  stretch  away  to  the  north  and  south- 
west as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  and  border  the  land  with 
a  frame  of  eternal  summer.  The  numerous  little;  mounds 
that  rise  like  light-green  billows  above  an  ocean  of  darker 
foliage  are  groves  of  Adansonia,  or  monkey-fig  trees,  that 
attain  a  height  of  two  hundred  feet  and  monopolize  tlicir 
favorite  soil  by  the  vigor  of  their  growth. 

I  looked  around  for  a  suitable  camping-ground.     The 


156  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

ridge  was  dismally  barren,  but  right  below  us,  at  the  bottom 
of  an  accessible  ravine,  I  saw  a  cluster  of  small  fir-trees, 
some  of  them  withered  and  apparently  dry  enough  for 
firewood.  I  showed  them  to  my  guide :  "  Look  here,  Josey ! 
wouldn't  that  make  a  good  camping-place  for  the  Indian, 
where  he  could  cook  our  dinner  while  we  try  the  volcano  ?" 

"  Just  the  place,"  said  Jos6  ;  "  and  if  you  like  we  could 
sleep  here  to-night :  it  seems  to  be  sheltered  all  around." 

"  Tell  him  to  go  down,  then,  and  make  himself  com- 
fortable. It  would  wear  him  out  to  drag  his  load  to  the 
top,  and  it  wouldn't  do  to  take  him  along  and  leave  the 
blankets  and  things  down  here.  Tell  him  we  shall  be  back 
by  three  or  four  o'clock." 

After  a  short  dialogue  in  the  Tuxpan  vernacular,  the 
Indian  waved  his  hat,  as  if  to  emphasize  his  approval  of 
the  programme,  and  we  resumed  our  road  toward  the  peak. 

"  I  knew  the  old  man  would  be  glad  to  get  a  rest,"  said 
Jos6 ;  "  but  as  for  the  blankets,  it  would  have  been  per- 
fectly safe  to  leave  them  anywhere  on  the  ridge.  One  vis- 
itor in  two  years  is  the  average,  I  reckon,  and  they  take 
very  different  routes." 

"  Are  there  no  hunters  coming  up  here  ?  It  would  pay, 
I  should  think." 

"  Well,  yes ;  but  they  find  enough  farther  down.  The 
foot-hills  are  full  of  all  kinds  of  game,  except  the  cima- 
rones"  (big-horn  sheep) :  "  they  only  come  down  in  winter 
nights,  I  am  told,  but  it  is  too  much  trouble  to  follow  them 
up  to  the  tierra  friaJ^ 

''  A  man  might  live  up  here  for  years,  then,  and  nobody 
know  anything  about  it." 

"Certainly  he  might.  I'll  tell  you,  senor,  what  hap- 
pened here  four  years  ago.  A  company  of  operadores" 
(exploring  miners)  "came  up  from  San  Patricio,  and  were 


THE  SIERRA   MAD  RE. 


157 


grubbing  around  on  the  Lookout   Cliffs,  as  they  call  that 
steep  ridge  over  there,  and  when  tliey  crossed  a  ravine  they 


SLOPES    OF    THE    SIERRA    MADKE. 


found  the  body  of  a  man,  lean  and  dried  up  like  a  piece 
of  leather,  as  if  he  had  been  lying  there  for  a  long  time. 
They  reported  the  thing  down  in  Val  de  Lucas,  and  tlie 
alcalde  got  the  '  stiff'  down  in  the  course  of  the  week,  but 
it  took  them  more  than  a  montli  before  they  could  identify 
him.  And  who  do  you  think  it  was?  An  outlaw  that  had 
broken  jail  in  Tehuacan  when  the  French  garrison  lel't, 
and  had  not  been  heard  of  for  full  six  years.  It  was  a 
little  before  Christmas  when  he  broke  out,  and  they  think 


158  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

he  tried  to  cross  tlie  sierra  in  tlie  snow,  and  froze  when  he 
slept  in  that  ravine." 

The  backbone  of  the  ridge  got  narrower  as  we  approached 
the  peak,  but  toward  ten  a.m.  we  reached  the  volcano  proper, 
and  then  began  the  real  ascent :  we  had  to  clamber  up  on 
our  hands  and  feet  when  we  failed  to  find  an  oblique  ravine 
or  a  snow-field  with  a  plastic  crust.  Where  the  snow  com- 
mences the  last  traces  of  vegetation  disappear,  and  only  on 
the  southeast  side  the  rocks  are  clothed  with  a  sort  of  red- 
dish moss,  that  helps  to  mitigate  the  dreary  aspect  of  these 
su])ra-mundane  regions.  I  followed  my  guide  in  silence, 
and  took  the  lead  now  and  then,  for  I  noticed  that  Jose 
trudged  straight  ahead  with  an  apathetic  disregard  of  com- 
ing obstacles,  keeping  his  eyes  on  the  ground  as  if  he  feared 
an  attack  of  the  "mountain  fever" — the  mal  de  monte — 
that  overcomes  travellers  at  the  brink  of  a  steep  precipice. 

The  last  thousand  steps  of  the  ascent  were  up-hill  work 
in  the  steepest  sense  of  the  word,  but  a  sharp  north  wind 
and  the  spes  finis  sustained  us,  and  ten  minutes  before  noon 
we  reached  the  last  barricade  of  jagged  ci*ags,  helped  each 
other  up,  and  stood  upon  the  apex  of  the  North  American 
continent. 

"0  Santissima!  mis  rodillas — my  knees!  my  knees!" 
laughed  Jose,  throwing  himself  at  haphazard  upon  the  loose 
rocks,  "  I  should  doubt  that  there  were  such  a  thing  as 
an  all-merciful  God  if  he  had  made  this  mountain  any 
higher!  Santissima  !  I  could  not  go  up  another  slope  like 
that  if  I  knew  it  was  leading  derecho  at  cielo^'  (straight  into 
heaven). 

"  Take  care,  amigo,"  said  I,  "  or  you  might  happen  to 
land  in  the  other  place :  you  are  sliding  right  toward  the 
trap-door  of  it." 

"iVb  hay  cuidado"  (no  danger),  "sir,"  he  laughed,  lying 


THE  SIERRA   MADRE. 


159 


down  at  full  lengtli  in  one  of  the  ruts  that  (livcTii'e  IVoni 
the  crater:  "the  hole  is  stopped  up.  El  diahlo  himself 
could  not  get  iu  if  he  tried  to  go  home  by  that  route." 

After  a  closer  inspection  of  the  supposed  crater,  I  arrived 
at  a  similar  conclusion.  The  rim  of  the  summit  still  in- 
closes a  circular  cavity,  about  twenty  yards  across  and  five 
or  six  feet  deeper  in  the  centre  than  at  the  circumference, 
but  the  volcano  of  Oriza])a  had  been  extinct  for  immemorial 
ages  when  the  Conquistadores  arrived,  and  has  never  since 
shown  any  disposition  to  resume  business.  The  walls  of 
the  crater  may  have  collapsed  and  obstructed  the  hole,  or 


CRATER    OK    ORIZABA. 


the  chief  vent  was  somewhere  in  the  deep  gorges  of  the 
northwestern  slope,  but  the  cavity  at  the  summit  shows 
certainlv  neither  a  trace  of  volcanic  ashes  nor  any  apcM'ture 
that  could  be  supj)Osed  to  have  been  the  chimney  of  a  sub- 
terranean furnace.  The  hollow  is  filled  with  basaltic  rocks, 
decorated  with  icicles  on  the  north  side  and  grayisji-white 
streaks  of  snow  in  their  horizontal  crevices,  and  here  and 


160  SUMMERLAXD   SKETCHES. 

there  between  tlie  crags  former  explorers  had  left  memen- 
toes of  their  visits, — broken  bottles,  a  rusty  pickaxe,  shrwls 
of  an  old  blanket,  and  a  pile  of  charred  sticks, — as  if  an 
adventurous  tourist  had  attempted  to  pass  a  night  on  the 
summit,  and  had  brought  up  the  material  of  a  camp-fii-e 
from  the  sierra  below. 

The  peak  of  Orizaba  is  perhaps  the  only  mountain  on 
earth  where,  at  an  elevation  of  more  than  three  miles  above 
the  sea-level,  the  air  can  be  breathed  with  impunity.  The 
lofty  table-lands  that  surround  its  western  and  southern 
base  seem  to  send  up  a  breathable  atmosjihere  to  a  height 
that  would  paralyze  your  lungs  in  Switzerland  and  South 
America,  while  the  tropical  latitude  has  lifted  the  snow-line 
to  an  elevation  of  more  than  fifteen  thousand  feet.  Besides 
a  queer  feeling  about  my  knee-joints,  nothing  but  the  fact 
that  the  noontide  beams  of  a  tropical  sun  were  so  utterlv 
devoid  of  warmth  could  remind  me  that  I  was  standi  no; 
three  thousand  feet  above  the  summit  of  Mont  Blanc,  and 
at  least  twelve  thousand  above  the  "Tip-Top  House"  on 
Mount  Washington.  My  lungs  were  perfectly  at  ease,  and 
the  dry  cough  that  was  provoked  by  every  attempt  at  a 
deep  respiration  might  be  ascribed  to  the  north  wind  that 
was  sweeping  over  the  summit  in  fitful  blasts. 

I  clambered  over  to  the  south  side,  where  the  wind  could 
not  strike  me  below  the  shoulders,  fastened  my  hat  with  a 
handkerchief,  and  looked  around.  The  view  from  the 
peak  is  a  perfect  panorama :  nothing  but  an  horizon  as 
sharp-drawn  as  the  sky-line  in  mid-ocean  bounds  the  land 
almost  all  around.  Almost,  I  say  ;  for  in  the  west  the  only 
North  American  rival  of  Orizaba,  the  volcano  of  Popoca- 
tapetl,  equally  remarkable  for  the  strangeness  of  its  form 
and  of  its  name,  rises  like  a  huge  white  cloud  above  the 
outline  of  W\(^  Sierra  Madre,  and  slightly  above  that  of  the 


THE  SIERRA   MADRE.  161 

horizon.  The  rest  is  a  map,  rather  than  a  picture,  of  Cen- 
tral America.  Tlie  sublime  glaciers  of  the  Sierra  do  San 
Juan  appear  like  glittering-  dots  on  a  background  of  dark- 
green  fir-woods,  and  behind  the  coast-range  of  Jalisco  the 
Pacific  Ocean  reveals  its  islands  and  the  smoke-trail  of  a 
steamer,  perhaps  on  her  way  to  Australia.  That  little 
mirror  with  an  oval  frame  which  reflects  the  rays  of  the 
sun  in  the  northwest  is  the  Laguna  del  Cayman,  in  North- 
ern Durango,  and  that  group  of  islands  in  the  opposite 
quarter  of  the  sky  belongs  to  Spain, — Las  Islas  Amarilla.s, 
on  the  western  coast  of  Cuba.  Letting  my  eyes  roam  over 
the  valleys  and  table-lands  of  the  continent,  I  could  not 
help  wondering  how  greatly  the  area  of  the  American  wilds 
still  exceeds  that  of  the  cultivated  districts.  In  comparison 
with  the  Southern  United  States,  Mexico  can  boast  of  a 
pretty  dense  population, — nine  million  iiduibitants  to  seven 
hundred  thousand  square  miles, — but  a  bird's-eye  view  of 
the  country  shows  that  the  yellow-green  corn-fields  and  tlie 
naked  environs  of  the  larger  towns  are  only  small  islands 
in  a  vast  sea  of  virgin  woods  and  savage  mountains,  and 
only  the  trans-Cordilleras  railroad,  that  extends  a  narrow 
sparkling  line  from  the  coast  to  the  centre  of  the  continent, 
impresses  one  with  a  sense  of  the  power  of  that  two-legged 
insect  whose  aggregated  dwellings — Vera  Cruz,  Puebla,  and 
the  capital — appear  like  small  whitish  specks  from  these 
heights. 

But  from  all  their  wanderings  my  eyes  sooner  or  later 
returned  to  the  Gulf-coast.  By  an  association  of  certain 
geographical  and  historical  ideas,  I  find  a  strange  (iliarm  in 
those  rock-bound  coasts  and  mountainous  islands  that  give 
this  branch  of  the  Atlantic  a  ])eculiar  individuality.  East- 
ern Mexico,  Guatemala,  Honduras,  Panama,  and  the  entire 
West  Indian  island-world  bristle  with  mountains,  and  their 


IQ2  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

diversified  coasts  and  those  of  the  northern  continent  con- 
trast with  each  other  as  strangely  as  Southern  Europe  and 
North  Africa.  In  this  happy  alliance  of  land  and  ocean, 
of  waters  navigable  and  coasts  inhabitable  to  the  very  land- 
and-water  line,  the  West  Indian  archipelago  is  the  only 
parallel  of  the  mare  internum,  the  inland  ocean,  of  the 
classic  nations ;  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  our  Mediterranean 
Sea ;  and,  remembering  that  the  Old  World  saw  its  golden 
age  when  the  westward  progress  of  pagan  civilization  had 
reached  the  shores  of  that  wonderful  midland  gulf,  I  can- 
not help  thinking  that  America  will  not  celebrate  her 
happiest  centuries  till  the  Anglo-Saxon  spirit  shall  have 
reclaimed  the  countries  that  border  this  great  mountain-lake 
of  the  West. 

I  looked  down,  and  was  puzzled  to  account  for  the  origin 
of  the  long  streaks  of  vapor  that  drifted  along  the  cliffs  at 
our  feet  and  away  into  the  empty  air,  till  I  became  aware 
that  they  must  be  clouds, — clouds,  too,  perhaps,  of  that 
fleecy,  aerial  kind  which,  viewed  from  the  lowland,  seem 
hardly  to  belong  to  the  sublunary  world.  They  were  the 
only  guests  of  these  lofty  heights.  A  couple  of  harpy 
eagles  circled  around  the  rocks  at  the  base  of  the  peak,  but 
they  had  their  eyries  far  below :  they  had  no  need  to  seek 
refuge  in  the  dreary  rock- wastes  that  shelter  the  brood  of 
their  persecuted  European  relatives. 

"  Look  down  here,  Josey,"  said  I :  "  the  mountain  throws 
no  shade,  hardly,  does  it  ?  The  sun  must  be  now  exactly 
overhead." 

"  Yes,  it  must  be  full  noon,"  he  replied.  "  I  wonder  if 
old  Benito  has  got  our  dinner  ready  ?" 

I  took  the  hint,  and  sent  a  farewell  look  to  the  eastern 
sky  and  the  Gulf,  whose  silver  plains  I  could  not  hope  to 
see  again  for  many  a  year.     "  Yes,  let  us  go,"  I  said  at  last. 


THE  SIERRA  MAD  RE.  163 

"I  begin  to  yearn  for  that  long-haired  blanket  of  mine: 
it's  getting  rather  chilly  up  here." 

"  There  must  be  something  wrong  with  our  Indian,"  I 
remarked,  when  we  had  got  about  half-way  down  :  "  that's 
his  cave  below  that  cliff  there,  but  I  don't  see  any  smoke. 
I'm  afraid  the  old  sinner  has  swallowed  our  bacon  raw  and 
thrown  the  crackers  away." 

"  I  can  guess  what's  the  matter,"  said  Jose.  "Tlie  wind 
has  been  getting  pretty  stiff,  and  he  had  only  five  or  six 
matches :  I  don't  think  he  has  been  able  to  get  a  fire  under 
way." 

The  Indian  walked  up  to  his  countryman  and  opened  his 
hands  in  a  deprecatory  way  when  we  reached  his  camping- 
ground. 

"  Just  as  I  thought,"  said  the  guide  :  "  he  has  been  try- 
ing to  light  that  wood  with  all  the  dry  grass  and  pine-needles 
he  could  find,  but  he  used  up  his  last  match  in  vain.  It's 
too  windy  and  the  wood  is  too  damp  :  it  wouldn't  be  any 
use  to  try  again,  he  says." 

"  Hadn't  we  better  go  over  to  the  south  side  of  the  moun- 
tain ?  Or  say,  Josey :  do  you  know  any  house  or  shelter 
of  some  kind  that  we  could  reach  before  night  ? — a  cave  or 
a  casucha  f  (a  herder's  cottage). 

The  Indian,  listening  eagerly,  had  understood  the  last 
word,  and  the  two  natives  looked  at  each  otlier  medita- 
tively. 

"  Hold  on,"  said  Jose  at  last ;  "  there  is  a  house  down 
here,  now  I  come  to  think  of  it,  but  there  is  nobody  living 
there, — the  old  quarteV  (storehouse)  "of  the  Rio  Blanco 
silver-mine.  But  we  can  hardly  reach  there  before  night 
if  we  want  to  cook  our  dinner  first." 

"  That  building  you  speak  of — is  it  on  our  road  to  San 
Rafael?" 


Ig4  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"  Certainly,  sir.  The  teamsters  from  Jalapa  used  to  stop 
there  before  the  Perote  pike-road  was  finished :  it  isn't 
anything  out  of  our  way." 

"  What  do  you  say,  men  ?  Shall  we  let  our  dinner  go 
and  try  to  reach  that  quartel  before  night,  and  have  a  big 
supper  there  and  a  good  night's  rest?" 

"  If  you  ask  me,  I  should  be  glad  to  start  right  away," 
said  the  guide. 

"  Shall  we  find  any  firewood  there  ?" 

"  Any  amount  of  it,  senor :  it's  right  in  the  centre  of  the 
pinaV^  (the  coniferous  belt). 

"All  right,  then.  Ask  the  Indian  if  he  can  rough  it 
out,  or  if  he  wants  to  take  a  cold  snack  before  we  go," 

The  Indian  grinned. 

"  It  seems  he  has  attended  to  that  already,"  said  Jose : 
"I'm  afraid  the  old  man  has  put  himself  outside  of  a  ter- 
rific lunch." 

"  Hand  me  my  gun,  then.  So  here  goes  for  the  quartel 
and  a  good  supper." 

After  a  somewhat  risky  scramble  through  the  cliflPs  we 
got  back  to  the  grassy  slopes  of  the  sierra,  where  we  could 
go  down  hill  at  a  trot,  so  that  we  managed  to  reach  the 
forest-region  of  the  eastern  slope  while  the  sun  was  yet 
high  up  in  the  sky.  Two  lines,  drawn  at  an  elevation  re- 
spectively of  nine  thousand  and  thirteen  thousand  feet, 
would  mark  the  vertical  extent  of  the  coniferous  belt.  In 
full  view  of  the  palm-groves  and  sugar-cane  fields  of  the 
coast,  one  can  breathe  here  the  resinous  odors  of  a  Norway 
pine-forest,  and  meet  such  flowers  and  shrubs  of  Old  and 
Xew  England  as  hollyhocks,  tiger-lilies,  mayflowers,  whor- 
tleberries, broom-corn,  and  hazel-nut  thickets.  The  mead- 
ows, too,  have  a  decidedly  northern  appearance :  fine  short 
grass  spotted  with  white  clover  and  bluebells,  and  bordered 


THE  SIERRA   MAD  RE. 


165 


by  rushes  and  forget-me-nots  along  tlio  mountain-creeks. 
Following  one  of  these  creeks,  we  passed  through  sunny 
glades  and  dark,  rock -bound  glens,  till  we  entered  a  deej) 


IN    THE    FINAL. 


mountain-gorge  and  heard  below  us  the  booming  ot  the  falls 
of  Val  del  Torre,  where  a  large  creek  tumbles  over  a  preci- 
pice of  three  hundred  feet  into  the  canon  of  the  Rio  Blanco. 
Leaving  the  caiion  to  the  right,  we  followed  the  windings 
of  a  rambia,  or  dry  ravine,  for  half  an  hour,  and  emerged 
upon  a  mountain-meadow  that  would  have  gladdened  the 
hearts  of  a  New  England  picnic  party,  tempting  us  sorely 

11 


IQQ  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

to  abandon  our  quartel  plan  and  go  into  camp  under  one 
of  the  shady  hohn-oaks  at  the  edge  of  the  forest.  What 
chances  here  for  summer  hotels  and  sanitaria  when  the  State 
of  Vera  Cruz  shall  have  added  a  star  to  a  certain  spangled 
piece  of  cloth  ! 

When  we  entered  the  woods  again,  a  gallinasso  (coq-des- 
bois),  a  large  bird  of  the  grouse  species,  flew  up  into  a  pine 
above  my  head,  and,  espying  us,  took  wing  again  immedi- 
ately, but  in  flying  through  the  open  branches  gave  me  a 
chance  for  a  snap  shot.  He  dashed  into  the  next  tree  and 
came  flopping  to  the  ground,  but  at  our  approach  fluttered 
away  and  contrived  to  reach  a  laurel-thicket,  where  further 
pursuit  became  hopeless.  Our  terrier  had  started  a  black- 
tail  doe  when  we  crossed  the  divide,  and  we  had  never  seen 
him  since.  Another  four  hundred  or  five  hundred  feet 
down  hill  and  we  reached  a  broader  valley,  at  a  point  where 
a  mountain-creek  had  been  bridged  with  a  few  rough-hewn 
logs. 

"  Gracias  a  Dios !  the  worst  of  our  trip  is  over,"  ex- 
claimed Jos6.  "  Here's  the  old  military  road  :  only  four 
miles  to  the  quartel  now." 

"  Who  owns  that  quartel,  as  you  call  it,  or  why  has  it 
been  abandoned  ?" 

"  It  used  to  be  the  storehouse  of  the  Rio  Blanco  mine, 
senor ;  but  it  doesn't  belong  to  anybody  in  particular  now : 
it  has  been  vacant  for  years." 

''The  company  broke  up,  I  suppose?" 

"  Why,  no,  sir.  It  wasn't  a  company :  it  used  to  be  a 
government  mine.  You  heard  of  Captain  Salinez,  I  sup- 
pose?    Well,  he " 

""  Never  heard  of  him.  Whom  do  you  say  it  belonged 
to  ?     The  Mexican  government  ?" 

"  No,  the  Spanish  government,  sir.     Let  me  tell  you  how 


THE  SIERRA    MADRK.  H\-J 

it  happened  that  our  people  had  to  abandon  it,  A  few 
years  before  the  revokition  tlic  Spaniards  put  an  old  Catidan 
officer  in  charge  of  the  mine:  he  used  to  be  a  sea-captain, 
they  say,  and  a  very  smart  man, — the  only  one  out  of  sixteen 
captains  who  saved  his  ship  when  the  Englisli  captured  the 
cargada"  (the  Spanish  silver-fleet).  "He  got  away  that 
time,  and  his  ship  Avas  the  only  one  that  reached  Spain  out 
of  the  largest  cargada  that  ever  sailed.  So  they  made  him 
superintendent  of  this  mine  when  he  left  the  navy ;  and 
when  the  revolution  broke  out,  this  Captiiin  Salinez  was 
again  the  only  one  who  didn't  get  fooled  like  all  the  rest  of 
the  mining-officers  :  he  knew  beforehand  how  it  would  end, 
and  saved  his  last  year's  Iwnanza  in  time.  And  what  do 
you  think  he  did  before  he  left  ?  He  bribed  all  the plateros'^ 
(ore-diggers)  "  who  had  ever  entered  the  shaft  to  follow  him 
over  to  Spain,  and  the  day  before  he  cleared  out  he  sent  a 
dozen  of  them  up  to  the  mine  to  play  us  a  trick  of  the 
meanest  sort :  when  they  came  back  he  said  the  rebels  were 
now  welcome  to  work  the  mine — if  they  could  find  it.  He 
had  not  been  gone  a  week  before  the  Liberals  captured 
Vera  Cruz ;  and  a  few  days  after  the  new  government  sent 
officers  of  their  own  up  here  to  take  charge  of  the  mine. 

"  They  found  the  furnace  and  hammer-works  in  good 
condition,  but  all  the  workmen  were  gone ;  and  when  they 
wanted  a  guide  to  take  them  uj)  to  the  mine  they  had  to  hire 
one  of  the  rancheros  that  lived  down  in  the  Pefias  valley. 
He  took  them  up  the  mountain  as  far  as  he  could  track  the 
ruts  of  the  ore-cars,  but  then  the  trouble  commenced  :  the 
sierra  was  so  rocky  and  full  of  caverns  that  the  entrance  of 
the  tunnel  might  have  been  anywhere  and  nowhere  all  over 
a  mountain-slope  two  miles  high  and  forty  miles  long. 
They  had  to  go  back,  and  tried  to  hunt  up  the  engineer  of 
the  mine  or  one  of  the  plateros,  but  not  a  man  could  they 


1(38  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

find  ;  and  when  they  asked  the  farmers,  they  didn't  know 
anything  about  it,  except  that  the  mine  was  somewhere  on 
the  soutlieast  side  of  the  Sierra  de  San  Lucas.  The  officers 
threatened  and  promised,  but  the  old  captain  had  been  too 
much  for  them  :  they  didn't  find  a  soul  who  could  tell  them 
the  one  thing  they  wanted  to  know.  Well,  sir,  ever  since 
that  time  there  have  been  commissioners  and  private  parties 
up  here  nosing  around  and  clambering  all  over  the  sierra, 
but  the  professional  operadores^'  (prospectors)  "  say  that  it 
would  be  a  great  deal  easier  to  find  a  new  mine  than  this 
old  one.  That  rascal  of  a  Salinez  wasn't  satisfied  with 
hiding  the  right  place,  but  left  no  end  of  counterfeit  seilas" 
(indications),  "  as  the  miners  call  them,  that  set  the  green- 
horns hunting  for  mares'  nests  in  the  ravines  and  limestone 
caves." 

"  So  the  right  place  has  really  never  been  found  ?" 
"  That's  what  I  was  going  to  tell  you,  sir.  About  ten 
years  ago — a  year  before  the  French  tackled  us — an  oper- 
ador  from  Durango  came  up  here  and  had  a  long  conference 
with  a  relation  of  his, — the  old  ranchero  Hernandez,  that 
used  to  haul  wood  to  the  furnace  in  time  of  the  Spanish 
government.  They  went  up  to  the  sierra  together  and 
crawled  around  in  the  rocks  till  the  old  man  got  tired,  but 
his  relation  didn't  give  it  up,  and  went  back  alone  the  next 
week  with  a  good  pile  of  tortillas  and  dried  beef.  He  came 
down  again  and  got  another  supply,  and  so  on,  for  a  quarter 
of  a  year,  till  his  relation  asked  the  neighbors  not  to  sell 
him  anything  after  this :  he  was  afraid  the  fellow  would 
ruin  himself.  But  Mr.  Operador  bought  his  tortillas  in 
another  settlement,  and  kept  the  game  up  till  one  evening 
he  came  down  after  sunset,  made  his  uncle  get  up  and  follow 
him  out  into  the  woods,  and  told  him  there  he  had  found 
the  old  bonanza  mine, — no  doubt  about  it,  he  said, — told 


THE  SIERRA    MADRE.  J^g 

liiin  how  he  had  discovered  the  true  indications,  and  the 
way  he  had  followed  them  up  ;  and  at  last  asked  his  advice 
how  they  should  work  the  thing :  should  they  keep  it  se- 
cret, or  should  they  borrow  some  money  and  get  a  govern- 
ment license?  'Make  sure  of  the  thing  first,'  said  the 
uncle.  *  Did  you  go  into  the  mine  ?' — '  It's  a  tunnel,'  said 
the  miner,  '  and  I  went  in  for  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  saw  the 
timbers,  the  wheelbarrows,  and  all.  What  shall  we  do  about 
it?'  They  had  a  long  talk,  and  on  the  following  day  the 
ranchero  applied  to  the  alcalde  of  Redondo,  a  well-to-do 
man,  who  lent  him  some  money  and  wrote  for  a  license. 
As  soon  as  they  could  get  the  necessary  tools  the  uncle  and 
nephew  and  four  of  the  uncle's  neighbors  went  up  into  the 
sierra  to  clear  the  obstructions  away,  so  as  to  have  every- 
thing ready  by  the  time  the  license  should  come. 

"  But  up  near  a  place  they  call  the  Paso  de  Salsas"  (Sas- 
safras Gap)  "  the  young  Hernandez  got  uneasy,  made  them 
stop  and  went  ahead  alone,  to  make  sure  that  they  A\ere  on 
the  right  road.  The  men  waited  and  waited  till  near  sun- 
down :  some  of  them  then  went  up  into  the  rocks  and  hal- 
loed and  looked  for  that  Hernandez  in  all  directions,  but 
they  couldn't  find  him ;  so  they  all  Avent  back  home,  won- 
dering if  the  man  had  gone  crazy  or  what  had  become  of 
him.  They  didn't  hear  anything  of  him  for  a  good  while, 
but  four  weeks  after  they  found  out  that  he  had  stopped  at 
a  tavern  in  Cuernavacas,  where  he  told  the  landlord  about 
his  troubles, — that  he  had  found  the  bonanza  mine,  and  lost 
it  again  after  sending  for  a  license  and  going  to  great  ex- 
pense about  it.  He  said  he  meant  to  come  back  and  pay 
the  alcalde  and  his  uncle  what  he  owed  them.  He  did  so, 
six  months  after,  but  with  the  money  he  had  left  he  started 
for  the  sierra  once  more,  and  swore  that  he  had  found  the 
mine  once  and  would  find  it  again.     They  say  he  sold  all 


170  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

liis  property  in  Durango  and  lived  in  the  Sierra  de  San 
Lucas  like  a  hermit  for  the  rest  of  his  life;  and  it  is  sure 
tiiat  he  has  often  been  seen  by  the  teamsters  who  crossed 
the  gap  between  Perote  and  Santander." 

I  began  to  fear  that  my  guide  too  had  lost  his  bearings, 
but  just  before  sunset  we  traversed  a  rocky  cerro,  or  rib,  of 
the  sierra,  and  sighted  our  destination  in  a  forest  of  hemlock- 
trees.  From  afar  it  resembled  a  ruined  castle,  but  the  stone 
wall  on  the  south  side  proved  to  belong  to  a  separate  struc- 
ture— the  rehossOy  or  smelting-furnace — while  the  quartel 
itself  was  built  in  the  orthodox  backwoods  style,  rough- 
hewn  logs  laid  crosswise  and  filled  out  with  a  mixture  of 
grass  and  adobe-mortar.  The  building  was  two-storied,  and 
after  a  glance  at  the  ground-floor  I  ascended  the  staircase — a 
massive  ladder  with  a  railing — and  found  myself  in  the  bel 
etage,  where  a  plank  floor  and  a  rustic  chimney  offered  de- 
cided advantages  over  the  stable-like  basement. 

"  Here  we  are,  compaiiero !"  said  Jos^,  slapping  his 
countryman  on  the  back.  "  Put  your  freight  in  this  corner 
and  make  yourself  at  home." 

Man  is  a  domestic  animal,  and  the  feeling  of  having  "  a 
roof  overhead"  has  its  charm  even  for  the  natives  of  a  rain- 
less clime.  But  the  chilliness  of  the  air  reminded  me  that 
we  were  still  ten  thousand  feet  above  the  tierra  caliente. 
"  Hold  on,  amigos,"  said  I :  "  let's  have  a  fire  before  all 
other  things  now,  and  supper  and  a  ten  hours'  rest  after. 
You  stay  here,  Josey,  and  attend  to  the  cookery,  and  let  me 
and  the  daddy  fetch  you  wood  enough  to  last  us  all  night." 

With  a  short  axe  that  constituted  an  item  of  the  Tuxpan's 
cargo,  we  sallied  out  into  the  pinal,  chopped  down  a  dozen 
of  the  withered  little  pine-trees  in  the  underbrush,  and 
broke  a  piece  of  timber  out  of  the  dilapidated  furnace  for 
a  home-log,  as  they  say  in  North  Carolina.     Half  an  hour 


THE  SIERRA   MADRE. 


171 


DESERTED    MINING-WOKKS    ON    THE    RIO    BLANCO. 


after  the  smoke  ascended  from  tlie  chimney  in  a  dense 
mass. 

'^  Ay,  que  canta  mifuego  tan  claro .'"  ("  How  strong  our 
fire  is  singing!")  Jose  exclaimed  again  and  ag-ain  as  he 
crumbled  his  crackers  into  a  panful  of  butter.  "  Now  tiie  old 
man  can't  make  us  believe  that  pine  wood  wouldn't  burn." 

The  Tuxpan  fetched  a  tin  bucket  full  of  water  from  the 
ravine,  and  we  spread  our  blankets  around  the  fire  and  sat, 
or  rather  lay,  down — inore  majorum — to  a  supper  of  cracker- 
pudding,  cooked  apples,  tortillas  with  a  little  butter  and 
sugar,  and  water  from  the  sierra  creek.  We  had  no  stimu- 
lants, but  ease  is  a  far  more  essential  element  of  comfort 
than  luxury,  and  I  felt  that  I  would  not  willingly  exchange 


172  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

ray  free-and-easy  repast  in  the  chimney-corner  of  the  old 
quartel  for  a  ceremonious  supjier  at  the  table  of  Baron 
Lafitte. 

"  Halloo  !  there  he  is !"  cried  Jose,  apropos  of  nothing, 
as  I  thought,  and  jumped  up,  and  down-stairs  into  the  base- 
ment. "  Yes,  it's  him  !"  he  shouted  from  below,  the  expla- 
nation being  this  time  furnished  by  the  joyful  yelping  of  a 
dog.  "  I  thought  I  heard  him  whine  around  the  house,"  said 
he  when  he  reappeared  on  the  ladder,  dog  in  arm.  "  Here 
he  is :  look  at  him,  as  wet  as  a  muskrat  and  full  of  burs. — 
Come  here,  Sentinelita !     Poor  doggy  !  come  to  the  fire." 

There  was  no  doubt  of  it :  Sentinelita  had  come  back,  as 
short-legged  and  long-named  as  ever. 

"Give  him  all  he  wants  to  eat,"  said  I.  "  I  wonder  how 
the  little  fox  tracked  us  across  the  Rio  Blanco?  He  must 
have  had  a  hard  day's  work  of  it." 

"  Mustn't  he?"  said  Jos6.  "  I  bet  you  he  followed  that 
doe  clear  across  into  the  Sierra  de  Pascarro :  when  I  heard 
him  give  tongue  the  last  time  he  was  'way  on  the  other  side 
of  the  San  Lucas  Mountains." 

"  You  were  afraid  you  had  lost  him  for  good,  I  suppose  ?" 

"  I  wasn't  sure  about  it,"  said  Jose,  with  an  admiring  look 
at  the  gastronomic  feats  of  his  pet :  "  I  know  from  experi- 
ence that  he  commonly  manages  to  be  back  in  time  for 
supper." 

"  What  is  this?"  I  asked,  pointing  to  a  little  paper  pack- 
age which  Jos^  had  shaken  out  of  his  pocket,  with  differ- 
ent buttons  and  bits  of  chewing-tobacco,  in  his  search  for 
matches. 

"That?"  with  a  furtive  look  at  the  Tuxpan.  "Why, 
that  must  be  Benito's  testimonial.  It's  very  foolish:  I 
thought  I  had  given  it  to  you  long  ago." 

"  What  is  it,  anyhow  ?" 


THE  SIERRA    MADRE.  173 

"  Oh,  lie  has  been  working;  for  ISIr.  Calgar,  a  ladriUcro'" 
(brickyard-master),  "and  his  boss  wrote  him  a  recommen- 
dation. Or  I  think  Mrs.  Calgar  did  the  writing:  she's 
quite  a  scholar,  they  say." 

"  Let  me  see  it." 

The  joint  literary  efforts  of  the  ladrillero  and  his  spouse 
had  achieved  the  following  document: 

"Una  recomendacion  por  Benito  Lucas  trabaxo  en  mi 
ladrilleria  hace  dos  anios  5  meses  otros  3  meses  jornaUn-o 
por  4  Reales  otros  tres  semanas  y  ahora  6  Meses  dos  seraanas 
a  precio  a  dos  medios  por  carga  otras  2  semanas  tres  reales 
Reales  siempre  diligente  que  le  puedo  encomendar  Es  esta 
seguro  siempre  diligente  puedo  encomendar  el  dia  veintidos 
de  noviembre  1875  manuel  Calgar." 

Literal  translation:  "A  recommendation  tor  l^encdict 
Lucas  worked  in  my  yard  two  years  ago  5  months  other  3 
months  day  labor  at  4  Reales  other  three  weeks  and  last  <> 
Months  two  weeks  job  work  two  medios  per  carga  other  2 
weeks  three  reals  Heals  always  industrious  that  1  can  recom- 
mend Is  he  is  reliable  I  can  recommend  twenty-second  <lay 
of  november  1875  m.  C." 

I  walked  across  to  the  loophole  in  the  opposite  wall  and 
took  a  look  at  the  sky.  The  calmness  and  clearness  of  the 
air  seemed  to  promise  a  cold  night,  so  we  put  the  home-log 
on,  spread  our  couches  in  a  semicircle  and  jM'cpared  lor  Hre- 
worship.  I  had  pulled  out  a  volume  of  Calderon's  Can- 
ciones,  and  my  companions  were  gossiping  with  that  talent 
for  protracted  confabulation  which  distinguishes  the  India 
Manso  from  his  taciturn  Northern  cousin,  when  we  were 
startled  by  a  most  uncanny  sound — a  long-drawn  croak  or 
a  shuddering  gurgle,  I  might  call  it — that  seemed  to  como 
from  the  depths  of  the  piilal,  and  made  the  terrier  rise  to 
his  feet  with  a  suppressed  growl. 


174  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"  What  was  that  ?"  was  the  question  implied  by  our 
puzzled  looks  at  each  other,  till  the  Tuxpan  oiFered  a 
remark  in  the  language  of  his  tribe. 

"He  says  it's  an  onza  de  monte''  (a  female  mountain- 
panther),  explained  the  guide :  "  that's  the  way  they  call  for 
their  mates,  he  says." 

We  listened  in  silence  for  a  couple  of  minutes,  but  heard 
nothing  but  the  low  babbling  of  the  mountain-brook. 

"  Virgen  purissima  !"  whispered  Jose,  making  the  sign  of 
the  cross :  "  if  that  didn't  put  me  in  mind  of  the  Llorona ! 
We  are  lucky  if  it's  nothing  worse  than  what  the  Indian 
thinks  it  was !" 

The  Llorona — a  noun  feminine  from  llorar,  "  to  weep,  to 
mourn" — is  an  indigenous  bugbear  of  the  Mexican  Cor- 
dilleras, a  nocturnal  lamia  that  haunts  the  rock-wastes  of 
the  Sierra  Madre  and  chills  the  blood  of  the  belated  traveller 
with  her  boding  voice.  He  who  meets  her  face  to  face  dies : 
to  hear  her  presages  an  imminent  calamity. 

"  Did  you  ever  see  the  Llorona,  Josey  ?" 

"  No,  but  my  uncle  in  San  Sebastian  did :  he  saw  her 
coming  towards  him  across  the  road  when  he  came  home 
late  one  night.  She  had  her  mouth  half  open,  and  showed 
a  set  of  snags  like  a  tiger,  senor;  but  he  saved  himself  by 
galloping  away  like  a  buffalo.  He's  a  powerful  runner,  my 
uncle  is." 

"  Are  there  any  other  ghosts  in  the  sierra  ?" 

"  Why,  yes,  sir.  There's  the  voz  de  luta"  (warning  voice), 
"  you  know ;  but  that's  a  propitious  spirit,  and  warns  peo- 
ple who  are  going  astray." 

"  Helps  travellers  that  have  lost  their  way  in  the  moun- 
tains, I  suppose." 

A  full  orchestra  of  singing-birds  awoke  us  the  next 
morning,  and  when  we  resumed  our  route  along  the  banks 


THE  SIERRA   MADRE.  175 

of  the  Rio  Blanco,  I  felt  sure  that  neither  sportsman  nor 
landscape-painter  could  find  a  similar  }>aradise  north  of 
the  Rio  Grande.  Turkeys  and  curacos  (pheasants)  were 
scraping  the  dry  leaves  all  along  the  mountain-side,  and 
made  the  air  musical  with  their  calls.  We  found  tracks  of 
panthers  and  black  wolves,  and  Sentinelita  started  three 
deer,  but  they  hugged  the  river-bottom  and  would  not 
break  cover.  From  the  sandstone  cliffs  that  overhung  the 
water  we  had  a  glorious  view  of  the  lower  river-valley 
and  the  terrace-lands  beyond.  As  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  the  country  appeared  like  a  boundless  rolling  ocean 
of  wood-covered  hills,  fading  away  to  the  eastern  hori- 
zon and  rising  to  the  northwest,  where  the  Sierra  Mesilla 
lifted  her  walls  of  sun-gilt  cliffs  and  evergreen  pines.  I 
durst  not  analyze  the  feelings  inspired  by  the  morning 
wind  that  carried  the  fragrance  and  the  greetings  of  this 
mountain- world,  but  I  could  not  suppress  a  growing  con- 
viction that  city-life  is  an  unpardonable  sin. 

A  little  below  its  junction  with  the  Yegua  Creek  we 
crossed  the  Rio  Blanco  once  more,  and  followed  the  wind- 
ings of  a  valley  whose  rock-walls  became  higher  and  steeper, 
affording  us  an  agreeable  shade  as  the  sun  rose  higher. 
About  ten  English  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Yegua 
the  canon  expands  to,  or  rather  crosses,  a  circular  valley  of 
more  than  half  a  league  in  diameter,  whose  western  wall  is 
formed  by  an  absolutely  perpendicular  cliff  two  miles  long 
and  about  six  hundred  feet  high.  This  citadel  is  garrisoned 
by  an  army  of  vultures,  who  have  their  nests  among  the 
summit-rocks,  where  their  tribe  may  have  roosted  in  peace 
since  the  end  of  the  glacial  period  that  escarped  these 
mountain-ramparts. 

"  What  are  those  chaps  living  on?"  I  aski'd,  pointing  to 
a  long  row  of  sentinels  on  the  edge  of  the  rock:  "(here 


176  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

can't  he  imicli  carrion  in  this  part  of  the  sierra,  1  should 
think  •?" 

"  I  couldn't  tell  you,  seiior,"  said  the  guide,  "  but  they 
always  find  something,  I  guess.  They  take  long  flits  down 
to  the  t'mi^a  caliente,  and  I  have  an  idea  that  they  mahe 
carrion  if  they  don't  find  it  ready-made.  They  are  harm- 
less, though,"  he  added,  '^  but  on  the  south  side  of  this  rock 
there  is  a  nest  of  mountain-eagles  that  often  make  the  set- 
tlers wish  the  thing  wasn't  quite  so  steej)." 
"  They  steal  a  good  many  kids,  I  suppose  ?" 
"  Yes ;  and  farmer  Garcia,  down  on  the  Olmos  Creek, 
suspects  them  of  having  kidnapped  his  boy." 
"  Carried  him  up  into  this  rock,  did  they?" 
"  Nobody  knows.  The  boy  and  his  sister — babies,  both 
of  them — were  at  play  in  the  garden  behind  Garcia's  house, 
and  their  mother,  passing  near  the  garden-fence,  saw  the 
girl  run  toward  the  gate  as  fast  as  she  could  and  just  as  if 
she  was  scared  out  of  her  wits,  and  when  she  went  into  the 
garden  to  look  for  the  boy,  he  was  gone.  They  didn't 
know  what  to  think  of  it,  for  they  had  never  seen  a  pan- 
ther or  puma  in  that  j)art  of  the  country,  and  a  wolf  couldn't 
get  over  the  fence ;  but  half  a  year  after  the  girl  got  sick, 
and  her  mother  took  her  down  to  Doctor  Gonzales's  place, 
near  San  Lucas,  and  when  they  came  through  the  garden 
the  girl  all  at  once  gave  a  fearful  scream,  and  caught  her 
motlier  round  the  neck  as  if  she  thought  somebody  was 
going  to  murder  her.  The  mother  looked  up,  and  what  do 
you  tliink  ?  The  doctor  keeps  a  large  tame  eagle  in  the 
garden,  and  the  girl  had  seen  the  critter  sitting  on  the  fence. 
She  wasn't  of  that  scary  sort  otherwise,  so  they  think  the 
eagle  must  have  reminded  her  of  something  she  had  seen 
before,  and  they  all  believe  now  that  those  devils  on  the 
rock  carried  the  boy  off,  with  nobody  but  his  sister  by." 


THE  SIERRA    MAD  RE. 


Ill 


"  Do  you  see  that  round  hill  over  there  ?"  said  Jos6  when 
we  emerged  from  tlie  cafion  a  little  after  noon.  "Well, 
right  behind  there  is  the  Franciscan  convent,  and  that  hill, 


CONVENT    OF    SA-\    IIAIAKI. 


as  it  looks,  is  a  grove  of  mango-trees  in  the  convent-garden. 
We  will  get  there  in  time  for  some  meal  or  other:  they're 
eating  all  day  long." 

"What  are  they  doing  besides  eating,  amigo?" 

Jose  stole  a  look  at  my  face  before  I  could  supj)ress  an 
involuntary  smile:  "Drinking?  That's  what  you  want 
me  to  say,  isn't  it?  But  no,"  with  a  sigh:  "I  wish  my 
chance  of  going  to  heaven  w'as  lus  good  as  tlieii-s.  They  are 
praying  three  or  four  times  a  day,  and  one  of  them  stuffs 
his  mattress  with  corncobs,  they  say — povrecito  !  And  they 
don't  charge  anything  for  burying  and  bai)tizing;  <>idy, 
marriage  is  two  dollars  and  a  half." 

"Are  they  attending  the  sick  or  doing  anything  for  the 
poor  people?" 

"  Yes,  they  do :  they  keep  a  place  for  poor  travellei-s  who 
cannot  pay,  and  even  for  poor  men's  horses.     And  one  of 


178  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

them  is  a  physician, — the  smartest  man  you  ever  saw :  he 
has  a  large  room  full  ■  of  stuffed  butterflies  and  poisonous 
animals,  birds,  vermin,  and  all.  You  mustn't  forget  to  see 
that :  it's  right  inside  of  the  church  ;  they  made  a  special 
partition  for  it." 

At  about  four  o'clock  we  reached  the  convent  premises, 
a  large  garden  not  wholly  devoted  to  kitchen  vegetables, 
since  the  centre  was  occupied  by  a  grove  of  shady  mango- 
trees,  and  the  hedge  was  reinforced  with  a  row  of  jessa- 
mine and  other  flowering  shrubs,  swarming  with  butterflies 
that  would  have  thrown  a  North-British  collector  into 
ecstasies.  The  convent  itself,  flanked  by  a  church  and 
sundry  agricultural  outhouses,  had  the  substantial  look  of 
a  Dutch  country  castle,  a  spacious  portico  and  an  extin- 
guisher-roofed balcony,  and  a  little  glass-covered  turret, — 
perhaps  the  observatory  of  the  doctor-priest. 

"  They  haven't  seen  us  yet,"  whispered  Jose  when  we 
approached  the  door :  "  the  jyrelado''  (abbot)  "  is  taking 
long  naps  after  dinner.     Let's  ring  the  bell." 

A  barefoot  boy  opened  the  door,  left  it  half  ajar  and 
ran  into  an  adjoining  room. 

"  All  right,"  said  a  voice  from  within :  "  tell  them  to 
come  in.  But  hold  on  !  Ask  them  if  they  can  chop  us  a 
little  wood." 

Jos6  burst  out  laughing.  "  That's  Father  Matias,"  said 
he,  and,  entering  the  door  without  ceremony,  grabbed  the 
boy  by  the  neck  before  he  could  deliver  his  message.  "Go 
back  and  call  the  father,  you  little  monkey.  Esta  un 
cahallero,  sino  es  d  caballo"  ["  This  is  a  cavalier,  though 
he  hasn't  brought  his  caballo  along").  "  He  is  going  to 
pay." 

"  Mil  pardones .'"  said  Father  Matias,  popping  out  of 
his  office  and  opening  the  door  as  wide  as  he  could  :  "  excuse 


*f 


THE  SIERRA    MADRE.  179 

the  boy's  stupidity.     Step  into  this  room,  please :  Father 
Hilario"  (the  prior)  "  will  be  down  directly." 

I  took  a  seat  in  a  cool,  airy  reception-hall,  not  over- 
furnished,  like  our  Northern  drawing-rooms,  but  provided 
with  all  the  essentials  of  a  guest-chamber,  six  or  seven 
chairs,  a  lounge,  and,  near  the  window,  a  table  with  a 
couple  of  books, — De  Vega's  dramatical  works  and  an 
illustrated  Natural  History. 

After  a  few  minutes  the  door  opened,  and  Father  Ililario 
made  his  appearance, — a  short,  fat  man  with  a  coquettish 
mantilla  over  the  coarse  habit  of  his  order, — who  made  me 
a  polite  bow  and  inquired  after  the  state  of  my  health, 
rubbing  his  hands  d  la  maUre  d'hStel: 

"  Please  make  yourself  at  home,  sir,  while  they  are  get- 
ting your  room  ready.  Would  an  early  supper  be  con- 
venient, or  would  you  prefer  something  warm  in  the  mean 
time  ?" 

"  No  such  thing,  padre  mio,"  I  protested.  "  Don't 
mistake  me  for  a  fine  gentleman.  I  came  to  the  sierra  for 
the  special  purpose  of  getting  away  from  hotels  and  fashion- 
able suppers,  and  you  mustn't  let  me  interfere  with  the 
more  important  occupations  of  the  worthy  fathers.  Your 
customary  supper  will  do  for  me,  and  at  any  time  that 
may  suit  you  best." 

"  You  are  over-kind,  sir :  sit  down,  please."  Then,  in 
a  more  jovial  tone,  "Viene  listed  d  una  ca^a  pobre"  ("  You 
are  coming  to  a  poor  house"),  "sir;  but  I  don't  doul)t  that 
you  will  make  allowances,  since  your  servant  tells  me  that 
you  camped  in  the  sierra  last  night.  311  vida!  wliat 
delight  your  countrymen  take  in  those  horrid  mountains  of 
ours  !  I  wish  we  could  export  them  in  exchange  for  your 
beautiful  farming-country  in  the  North.  You  are  an 
American,  sir  ?" 


180  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

"  At  present,  my  father,  and  I  am  proud  of  the  name, 
since  I  have  seen  such  a  glorious  part  of  America  as  this 
mountain-land  of  yours." 

"Yes,  yes,"  laughed  the  padre,  "you  are  right:  we 
should  treat  each  other  as  brethren, — Americanos  litres,  all 
of  us,  whether  north  or  south.  You  are  on  your  way  to 
Jalapa,  I  understand  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  getting  ready  for  cross-examination.  "  I 
must  see  Fort  Perote  and  the  Rio  Frio  Valley  while  I  am 
in  the  State,  and  Jalapa  is  a  good  central  point  for  a  foot- 
traveller,  and  the  town  itself  is  the  prettiest  on  the  eastern 
slope." 

"  That's  true,"  switching  oif  into  the  geographical  topic. 
"  They  say,  with  the  exception  of  Oaxaca,  there  is  no  town 
in  Mexico  with  a  more  beautiful  neighborhood.  Well,  I 
am  glad  you  are  so  favored  by  the  weather-saints.  Wasn't 
it  splendid  the  last  three  weeks  ?" 

End  of  cross-examination.  Want  of  inquisitiveness  is 
perhaps  the  best  side  of  the  Spanish  character  from  a  social 
standpoint,  as  it  is  certainly  the  worst  in  regard  to  scientific 
aifairs. 

"  Do  you  smoke,  sir  ?"  asked  the  padre,  straddling  the 
corner  of  the  table  and  taking  a  package  of  cigarettes  from 
his  bosom. 

"  3Iil  gracias  !  I  don't,  for  a  wonder.  My  countrymen 
are  great  smokers  now,  and  the  habit  is  still  gaining  ground. 
It  would  become  epidemical  if  they  had  your  good  tobacco." 

"  You  flatter  us,  or  rather  our  habit,  senor.  No,  no ! 
you  are  right,  and  we  are  wrong :  it's  an  abominable  vice. 
But  what  shall  a  man  do?  Rather  learn  to  relish  it  than 
have  others  smoke  all  around  you  and  make  you  sick.  I 
have  forty  calvitos"  {"  baldies,"  shaven  polls)  "  under  my 
charge — all  ages,  from  fifteen  to  seventy-five — and  they 


THE  SIERRA    MADRE.  \^\ 

all  smoke,  pecac?ores,  every  one  of  us.  The  saints  didn't 
smoke,  that's  one  sure  thing." 

"  I  don't  think  that  St.  Francis  did." 

"  Gi^an  Dios,  no !"  laughed  the  padre.  "  He  wouUl 
take  the  hide  clean  off  our  backs  if  Ac  caught  us  at  it.  He 
used  to  mix  all  his  victuals  with  gall,  they  say,  wore  woollen 
shirts  in  summer  and  a  linen  jacket  in  winter,  and  slept  on 
a  plank  with  a  cross  for  his  pillow.  Well,  you  must  make 
yourself  comfortable  till  supper.  You  don't  know  farmer 
Pacheco — the  one  who  has  the  contract  for  hauling  wood 
for  the  Perote  garrison — do  you  ?  Weil,  his  wife  died 
yesterday, — that  is,  his  third  wife.  They  say  he  is  going 
to  get  another  one  before  the  end  of  the  summer." 

Fearing  that  the  prelado  was  preparing  for  local  gossip 
for  my  benefit,  I  was  glad  to  remember  the  museum  and 
the  scientific  convent-doctor.  "You  have  a  physician  of 
your  own  here  ?"  I  remarked,  apropos  of  Mr.  Pacheco's 
wife. 

"  Oh,  yes — Padre  Ramon :  he  takes  care  of  the  whole 
Qomareci!^  (county).  "  We  could  not  wish  to  have  a  better 
doctor." 

"He  is  a  natural  philosopher  too,  I  understimd ?" 

"  So  you  have  heard  about  him  ?  Yes,  sir,  he  is  quite 
a  scholar :  he  has  made  a  collection  of  natural  curiosities 
that's  really  worth  seeing.'^ 

"  Is  the  doctor  at  home  ?" 

"  No :  I  am  sorry  to  say  he  went  out  fishing  this  after- 
noon, but  he  will  be  back  before  supper,  and  we  c^\n  take 
a  look  at  his  collection  in  the  meanwhile." 


12 


CHAPTER   VL 

LA   TIERRA   FRIA. 

Up  in  the  highlands,  in  the  home  of  health. — Prior. 

Dogs  and  horses  whose  caudal  appendages  have  been 
clipped  for  different  generations  are  at  last  born  with  bolv 
tails,  and  the  pathology  of  the  human  mind  presents  some 
very  analogous  phenomena.  The  spiritual  tyranny  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  for  instance,  has  certainly  left  its  mark  on 
the  Latin  races,  for  nature  accommodates  herself  to  ab- 
normal circumstances,  and  when  she  found  that  the  posses- 
sion of  an  inquisitive  mind  subjected  her  children  to  the 
knife  of  the  hierarchical  vivisector,  she  saved  them  and 
their  trainer  a  trouble  by  making  an  incurious  disposition 
hereditary.  The  posterity  of  the  orthodox  Spaniards  have, 
in  consequence,  become  contentedly,  and  almost  compla- 
cently, ignorant,  and  the  difference  between  the  science  of 
the  Anglo-Americans  and  that  of  their  Spanish- American 
neighbors  is  one  of  kind  as  well  as  of  degree.  In  Yankee- 
dom  knowledge  is  a  hobby,  a  passion,  a  recreation :  in 
Mexico  it  is  a  trade.  The  convent  brethren  of  the  Padre 
Ramon  tolerated  his  scientific  pursuits  as  a  harmless  mono- 
mania, but  I  do  not  think  that  more  than  three  or  four  of 
the  forty-two  frailes  were  able  to  understand  how  a  sane 
man  could  busy  himself  with  stuffing  birds  and  collecting 
minerals  unless  he  was  engaged  by  a  museum  or  the  assayer 
of  a  mining  company. 
182 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  133 

"  Venga,"  said  the  abbot,  "  vamos  a  ver  las  Hnujuhiri- 
dades^' — Let's  take  a  look  at  the  oddities,  the  extravaganzas, 
of  the  honest  doctor, — a  cliance  to  utiHze  the  fool  by  show- 
ing him  off  to  strangers  and  fellow-lunatics. 

Padre  Ramon  was  certainly  a  versatile  scientist.  His 
museum  (in  a  partition  of  the  church  tliat  I  shoukl  have 
mistaken  for  the  cage  of  a  staircase)  comprised  natural 
and  antiquarian  curiosities,  relics,  mechanical  contrivances, 
busts,  and  several  dozen  oil  pictures,  mostly  of  his  own  paint- 
ing. His  collection  of  beetles  and  butterflies  was  really 
splendid :  he  had  sixty  or  seventy  varieties  of  swallow-tailed 
papilionides,  horned  soarabcei  of  wonderful  metallic  lustre, 
and  one  specimen  of  the  colossal  atlas  moth  (Sphinx  r/iqcus), 
measuring  eleven  inches  with  outspread  wings, — the  first 
I  had  ever  seen  on  this  side  of  the  Isthmus.  A  gorgeous 
display  of  fossils  and  minerals  on  a  varnished  oak  table 
evinced  more  taste  than  erudition :  the  polychromatic 
crystals  were  arranged  with  a  view  to  effective  color  con- 
trasts, but  a  piece  of  coralline  rock  was  labelled  "  Pcinal 
petrijicado,'^  petrified  honeycomb,  and  the  skull-bone  of  an 
Aztec  warrior  and  the  canine  teeth  of  a  cave-bear  were 
grouped  together  as  homogeneous  fragments,  and  described 
respectively  as  "Skull  of  Fossil  Man"  and  "  Horns  of  the 
Same."  The  pictures  were  of  the  modern  idyllic  type, 
Paul  and  Virginia  promenading  on  verdigris-colored  lawns, 
and  landscapes  that  bore  a  strange  resemblance  to  the  fifty- 
cent  chromos  in  our  metropolitan  variety  stores. 

*'  It  can't  be  denied  that  he  is  a  superior  artist,"  observed 
the  prior :  "  come  and  let  me  show  you  two  pictures  he 
painted  for  our  church." 

The  one  was  a  Mater  Ecstatica  with  uplifted  hands  and 
large  expressive  eyes :  the  other  was  a  Temj)tation  of  C/inst, 
the  tempted  a  meek  saint,  but  a  trifle  too  sleek  after  his 


184  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

forty  days'  fast, — the  tempter  luridly  grotesque,  with  red 
proboscis  and  carnivorous  teeth.  The  abbot  and  his  friar 
met  here  on  common  ground.  Besides  the  doctor's  con- 
tributions, the  main  church  contained  a  collection  of  pic- 
torial miscellanea  whose  presence  in  a  sanctuary  seemed 
hardly  justified  by  their  artistic  merit.  Sundry  uniformed 
generals  and  grandees  from  an  illustrated  history  of  Spain 
glittered  among  the  beatific  visions  of  a  Mexican  Tinto- 
retto, and  the  department  of  simple  woodcuts  comprised  a 
"  Street-scene  in  Melbourne"  from  some  illustrated  English 
monthly,  and  a  view  of  the  "Riverside  Military  Academy" 
at  Peekskill,  New  York. 

Toward  evening,  when  I  was  picking  a  few  berries 
from  the  currant-hedge  on  the  south  side  of  the  convent- 
garden.  Padre  Ramon  entered  the  gate  with  his  angle  and 
a  string  of  black  pickerel,  but  made  straight  for  the  re- 
fectory. After  supper  he  joined  me  in  the  garden, — a 
fat,  vulgar-featured  little  monk,  but  with  a  singularly 
pleasant  voice  and  an  infectious  laugh.  His  joviality  was 
not  the  sly  self-persiflage  of  certain  French  abbes  in  the 
presence  of  suspected  sceptics,  but  the  unaffected  frankness 
of  a  man  who  felt  his  practical  independence  of  his  present 
situation. 

"  You  can  boast  of  a  very  indulgent  prior,"  I  remarked 
when  he  mentioned  a  recent  visit  to  the  lake  region  of 
Michoacan  in  company  of  the  padre  cocinero,  the  convent 
kitchen-master. 

The  doctor  shrugged  his  shoulders.  "  Our  gates  are 
open,"  said  he,  "and  inside  parties  nowadays  need  alr/u- 
nas  alicientes — some  inducements — to  stay,"  alluding  to 
President  Juarez's  abrogation  of  the  law  that  made  mo- 
nastic vows  legallv  bindinp". 

"  Are  the.se  concessions  sanctioned  in  Italy  ?" 


LA    TIER R A    FRIA. 


185 


"In  Piiebla  at  least:  our  vicar-^ciicral  leaves  it  oplioiial 
with  each  abhot." 

The  prior  of  San  Rafael  seemed  to  have  made  the  freest 
use  of  that  privilege.  There  was  no  reoular  night-(!haj)el,- 
and,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  detailed  functionaries,  tlie 
friars  were  at  leisure  after  sundown,  j)leasing  themselves  as 
to  the  employment  of  the  uQxt  twelve  hours,  provided  they 
restricted  their  choice  to  indoor  j)astimes.     Those  who  dis- 


"  DOLCE    FAR    NIENTJi.' 


regarded  this  provision  had  to  take  their  chance  of  finding 
the  gates  closed  at  their  return,  but  the  readmission  of  a 
penitent  seemed  to  depend  on  the  degree  of  his  prospect! v^e 
usefulness  rather  than  of  his  previous  guilt,  and  in  tlu^  case 
of  valuable  artisans  the  ])rior  had  a  trick  of  "conniving 
with  both  eyes." 

"You  may  have  noticed  that  big  fellow  in  the  tree  there," 
said  the  doctor,  pointing  to  a  sycamore  near  the  gate,  where 
a  burly  friar  had  swung  his  hammock:  "that's  the  chief 
carpenter,  one  of  our  monks,  but  just  as  independent  as  vou 
or  the  French  consul  if  it  should  please  you  to  pass  a  few 
weeks  on  our  premises.  He  left  us  twice,  and  the  last  time 
built  himself  a  shanty  for  his  children  and  their  mother  in 


]86  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

the  Villa  Amorosa,  as  they  call  tiiat  settlement  in  the  bottom 
tlicre,  inhabited  mostly  by  females.  When  his  woman 
left  him  tlu;  prior  offered  to  t!ik(!  him  back,  promising 
c(>m{)rehensive  indulgences  for  i)ast  and  future  offences,  l)ut 
li(!  sti|)uliit('(l  for  a  triple  ration  ;iiid  six  yards  of  black 
cloth  p(!r  irionlh,  sinc(!  w(!  cnnnot  ])jiy  him  in  cash  ;  und 
finjilly  we  h;id  to  take  him  on  his  own  terms." 

"  You  are  not  p('rmitt(!(l  to  employ  outsiders,  I  sup- 
pose?" 

"Yes,  we  arc,  but  we  cannot  afford  to  pay  them:  the 
convent  is  too  much  in  debt,  and  the  receipts  of  our  farms 
are  nearly  swallowed  by  the  mudanzas, — the  commutation- 
money." 

"What's  that?" 

"  The  constitutional  amendment  of  '59  suppressed  all 
convents,  you  know,  (excepting  those  (connected  with  a  char- 
itable institution  ;  and,  since  we  have  no  hospital  of  our 
own,  we  pay  '  comiimtation-money,' — nominally  in  support 
of  the  J*ncl)la  State  hospital,  hut  in  reality  into  the  pockets 
of  th(>  olhcial  blackmailci-s,  who  would  hav(!  us  by  the 
throat  in  a  iiiinuti!  if  we  didn't  j)laster  their  palms.  That 
law  defeats  its  ostensible  pui-posc,"  lie  added,  "  ibr  it  has 
reducetl  us  to  j:>as6'iu(;  (charities  and  raised  the  price  of  our 
hospitality  considerably." 

l^he  padre's  last  remark  made  me  thoughtful,  and  seeing 
Jos6  at  the  gate  half  an  hour  after,  I  took  him  aside  and 
asked  him  to  ascertain  the  terms  of  our  present  boarding- 
house  as  discreetly  as  possible.  I  \v  knocked  stealthily  at 
the  door  and  slipjicd  into  my  bedi'oom  a  minute  after  the 
prior  had  recommended  me  to  his  patron  saint. 

"I'm  glad  you  thought  of  that  in  time,"  he  whispered. 
"I  told  them  we  preferred  to  settle  our  bill  every  morning, 
and  the  padre  eocinero  says  that  their  regular  terms  are  five 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  ]87 

dollars  a  day,  and  two  for  each  servant,  but  that  the  })rior 
will  probably  deduct  a  couple  of  reals  because  you  have  no 
horse.  Santissima,  que  sinverguenzas !  Let's  get  out  of 
this ;  that  beats  the  hotel  prices  in  Aguas  Calientes." 

We  needed  no  better  pretext  than  the  glorious  weather 
of  the  next  morning,  and  continued  our  road  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Perote  and  the  "  Coffer  Peak,"  the  highest  summit 
of  the  eastern  coast-range.  When  we  left  the  convent-gate, 
and  again  an  hour  before  sunset  of  the  same  day,  I  noticed 
an  interminable  swarm  of  blackbirds  flying  in  a  southwest- 
erly direction,  probably  northern  emigrants  on  the  way  to 
their  winter  quarters  in  Honduras  or  Yucatan.  Their  flight 
was  as  silent  and  steady  as  that  of  migratory  j)igeons,  as  if 
fatigue  or  the  wonders  of  the  strange  country  had  hushed 
their  accustomed  chatter. 

On  our  first  halt,  at  the  edge  of  a  precipitous  cliff,  we 
were  overtaken  by  a  troop  of  noisy  gamins,  the  youngsters 
of  the  Villa  Amorosa,  to  judge  by  their  pure  S})auish  and 
convent-cloth  jackets.  One  of  them  clambered  up  to  our 
cliff,  and,  seeing  me  drink  from  a  dripping  rock-spring, 
asked  me  for  the  loan  of  my  gutta-percha  cup. — "Just 
come  up  here,  boys,  where  this  gentleman  can  see  the  fun," 
he  called  down  to  his  comrades. 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do,  uino?"  I  asked. 

"Oh,  they  are  coming,  sir:  you'll  see  \\\o  wliolc  lark. 
Padre  Tito's  Pablo  caught  a  big  black  squirrel  last  Friday, 
and  yesterday  morning  the  creature  got  away  and  up  a  big 
pine-tree  behind  our  house.  There  were  eight  of  us  after 
him,  and  when  we  cornered  him  near  the  top  he  jumped 
down  on  our  roof,  sixty  feet  straight,  and  never  hurt  him- 
self a  bit.  We  caught  him  on  the  chimney,  but  Pablo's 
godmother  wouldn't  let  him  keep  the  thing:  he's  bewitched, 
she  says.     But  if  we  can't  keep  him  we  are  going  to  liave 


188  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

.some  fun  out  of  him,  anyhow ;  so  we  agreed  to  take  him 
out  here  and  throw  him  down  one  of  these  high  cliffs." 

"  What  good  would  that  do  you  ?" 

"  Why,  to  see  the  fun  and  to  find  out  if  he  is  bewitched  or 
not.  If  there  is  any  bruxeiia"  (enchantment)  "  about  him, 
a  thousand  feet  more  or  less  won't  make  much  difference." 

The  outer  crags  of  the  declivity  overhung  the  valley  of 
the  Rio  Blanco,  more  than  six  hundred  feet  below,  and  the 
foot  of  the  precipice  was  bristling  with  cliffs  and  bowlders. 
The  question  whether  squirrels  can  be  killed  by  a  fall  could 
hardly  be  put  to  a  severer  test :  the  problem  had  a  scientific 
interest,  and  a  stout  sqnirrel  might  survive  the  salto  mortale; 
so,  calming  my  conscience  with  these  considerations  and  the 
blessed  absence  of  Mr.  Bergh,  I  decided  to  tolerate  the 
experiment. 

They  had  him  in  a  pillow-slip,  a  full-grown  Seiurus  niger, 
as  bulky  and  heavy  as  a  moderate  tom-cat,  and  quite  as  wary 
in  his  movements.  He  crouched  for  a  spring  when  I  peeped 
into  the  bag,  and  lowered  his  head,  measuring  the  opening 
with  glittering  eyes. 

"  Let  him  look  down,  and  let's  see  if  he  will  risk  the 
jump  on  his  own  account,"  said  I,  when  his  proprietor 
approached  the  brink. 

The  boys  got  around  him  and  turned  the  flajjs  of  the  slip 
back,  till  the  captive  sat  exposed  at  the  bottom  of  the  bag. 
He  looked  down  and  then  back  and  sideways,  as  if  com- 
paring the  chances  of  escape  in  the  different  directions,  and 
finally  clambered  to  the  edge  and  turned  half  around,  so  as 
to  face  an  open  space  between  the  spectators  and  the  brink 
of  the  precipice.  But  just  when  we  widened  our  circle  to 
intercept  a  flank  movement  he  took  a  flying  leap  into  space, 
and  fluttered  rather  than  fell  into  the  abyss  below.  His 
legs  began  to  work  like  those  of  a  swimming  poodle-dog. 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA. 


189 


MOUNT    PEROTE. 


but  quicker  and  quicker,  wliile  his  tail,  slightly  elevated, 
spread  out  like  a  feather-fan.  A  rabbit  of  the  same  weight 
woidd  have  made  the  trip  in  about  twelve  seconds :  the 


190  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

squirrel  protracted  it  for  more  than  lialf  a  minute.  With 
utter  disregard  of  the  conventional  laws  of  gravity  the  ratio 
of  its  descent  decreased,  till  it  appeared  to  hover  in  empty- 
space,  and  alighted  as  easy  as  a  skylark  on  its  return  from 
an  aerial  flight.  The  four-footed  bird  landed  on  a  ledge 
of  limestone,  where  we  could  see  it  plainly  squat  on  its 
hind  legs  and  smooth  its  ruffled  plumage,  after  which  it 
made  for  the  creek  with  a  flourish  of  its  tail,  took  a  good 
drink,  and  scampered  away  into  the  willow-thicket. 

In  leaping  from  a  roof  or  tree  a  cat  has  to  rely  on  the 
elasticity  of  its  legs,  which  will  not  save  it  if  the  height 
exceeds  a  certain  modicum,  unless  the  ground  below  is  soft 
or  sloping ;  but  a  squirrel  breaks  the  force  of  its  fall  in 
mid-air,  using  its  tail  and  flat  body  as  a  parachute,  for  the 
common  varieties,  as  well  as  the  flying-squirrel  proper, 
have  an  expansive  skin  joining  the  upper  half  of  each  leg 
to  the  body. 

The  children  of  the  amorous  village  seemed  rather  dis- 
appointed at  the  result  of  their  experiment,  but  it  settled 
two  points  to  my  satisfaction  :  that  squirrels  cannot  be  killed 
by  a  fall,  and  that  they  must  act  some  important  part  or 
other  in  the  household  of  Nature,  since  their  survival  has 
been  secured  by  such  ample  precautions.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  diving  sea-gull,  which  can  fly,  swim,  run,  and 
stay  under  water  for  minutes  together,  hardly  any  other 
animal  is  so  well  protected  against  the  contingencies  of  its 
trade  as  the  fan-tailed  rodent,  that  unites  the  agility  of  a 
monkey  with  the  immunities  of  a  bird,  and  supplements 
the  winter-store-gathering  providence  of  man  by  a  faculty 
of  intermittent  hibernation. 

Leaving  the  camino  real  to  the  right,  we  kept  along  the 
precipitous  banks  of  the  Rio  Blanco,  crossed  it  about  ten 
miles  above  the  convent,  and  again  struck  into  the  pinal, 


LA    TIERRA   FRIA. 


191 


the  coniferous  region 
of  the  Tierra   Fria, 
whose  lower  bound- 
ary rises  in  the  coast- 
range  to   nine  thou- 
sand feet,  while  the 
warm  Gulf  winds  ele- 
vate the  snow-line  to 
thirteen    or  fourteen 
thousand,    or    about 
eight    hundred    feet 
above    that    of    the 
central  sierras.      On 
northwestern  slopes  I 
noticed  a  slight  frost 
on  the  grass,  but  the 
vegetation    was    less 
uniform  than  in  lati- 
tudes  of    the    same 
average  temperature : 
mulberries,     copper- 
beeches,        chestnut- 
trees,  and  even  mag- 
nolias, still    mingled 
with    the    furs    and 
hemlock  pines,  for  the 
persistent  invasion  of 
semi-tropical     germs 
from  the  neighboring 
Tierra  Templada  has 
here    adapted    some 
plants  to  the  climate 
of     Scotland    which 


i;iu    l.LA.-.; 


]92  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

liuman  art  could  hardly  propagate  in  France  or  North 
Carolina.  I  have  often  thought  that  our  attempts  to  ac- 
climatize Southern  trees  and  flowers  would  be  more  suc- 
cessful if  we  could  procure  our  seeds  from  the  forests  of  an 
equatorial  mountain-region  rather  than  from  the  border- 
lands of  the  temperate  zone. 

We  passed  a  venta,  a  little  wayside  tavern,  in  the  open 
forest  where  our  trail  crossed  the  Orizaba  stage-road,  but 
the  ventero  had  nothing  but  pulque  and  bacon  on  hand,  so 
we  took  dinner  a  few  miles  farther  up,  at  the  turpentine- 
distillery  of  Don  Luiz  Tacoma,  where  the  shopkeeper  of 
the  casa  sold  us  a  bunch  of  plantains  and  a  pailful  of  fresh 
milk,  and  where  we  witnessed  another  experiment  with 
flying  mammals.  One  of  the  overseers,  who  was  taking 
his  siesta  on  the  porch  of  the  shop,  informed  us  that  the 
proprietor  had  shipped  six  hundred  barrels  of  turpentine 
to  Matamoras  this  year,  and  could  undersell  the  Yankees 
after  realizing  a  handsome  profit.  He  paid  his  laborers 
from  two  to  three  reals  (twenty-five  to  thirty-seven  cents)  a 
day.  "  I  am  sorry  that  the  superintendent  isn't  at  home," 
said  he ;  ''  he  could  show  you  a  specimen  of  a  curious  sort 
of  cannel  coal  which  our  workmen  have  found  at  diflferent 
places  in  this  neighborhood.  It's  jet  black,  and  burns  in 
chips,  like  sulphur ;  you  can  light  it  without  any  wood  at  all." 

"  You  don't  store  your  turpentine  in  a  combustible 
building  like  that?"  said  I,  pointing  to  a  long  wooden 
shed  above  the  factory. 

"No;  that's  the  workmen's  barracks:  we  have  first-rate 
storage  in  a  natural  cave  back  there.  All  we  had  to  do 
was  to  level  the  floor  and  fix  a  gate  to  the  entrance.  I 
haven't  got  the  key,  or  I  would  show  it  to  you." 

"  Ask  that  gentleman  if  he  has  ever  seen  a  pitched  bat 
fly,"  said  the  storekeeper. 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  193 

"  You  are  right.  Look  here,  sir :  liave  you  ever  tried  to 
blind  a  bat  and  let  him  fly  in  daytime  ?" 

"  No  :  how  do  you  do  it  ?" 

"  I'll  show  you.  Oh,  Lorenzo !"  he  hailed  one  of  his 
workmen  :  "  tell  that  boy  Lucas  to  get  a  couple  of  bats  if 
he  can  climb  the  gate.  Tell  him  to  get  two  big  ones,  and 
bring  the  pitch-bucket  here.  That  cave  is  just  lined  with 
them,"  he  explained.  "  In  winter-time  you  could  gather 
them  like  grapes  in  a  vineyard.  In  midsummer  they  are 
pretty  scarce." 

"  Now,  look  here,"  said  he  when  the  boy  returned  witli 
a  pitch-keg  and  some  things  in  his  hat  that  looked  like  two 
pieces  of  flabby  leather:  "just  notice  the  size  of  their  eyes, 
— little  black  specks,  that's  all.  What  do  you  say  now?" 
after  anointing  one  of  the  victims  with  a  spoonful  of 
pitch-grease:  "is  there  any  earthly  possibility  now  of  this 
creature's  seeing  with  his  eyesf  No  more  tlian  if  you'd 
chopped  his  head  off.  But  now  I'll  show  that  he  can  see, 
after  all." 

We  entered  the  shop,  closed  doors  and  windows,  and 
flung  the  bat  more  than  once  against  the  ceiling.  The 
third  time  he  took  wing,  and  began  to  navigate  the  air 
as  steadily  and  knowingly  as  any  bat  or  moth  in  the  twi- 
light of  a  summer  day.  He  avoided  the  rafters,  dodged 
the  hams  and  fox-skins  at  the  ceiling,  and  turned  just 
before  his  winy-s  touched  the  walls  at  either  end  of  the 
building. 

"That  will  do,"  said  I.  "I  have  heard  something  of 
the  sort  before,  but  I  believe  it  now.  They  can  see  in  a 
pitch-dark  night  as  well  as  in  daytime." 

"  Yes,  but  how  ?"  said  the  overseer:  "they  don't  do  it 
with  their  eyes,  that's  one  sure  thing:  it  must  Ix '' 

"  Witchcraft  ?"  I  snggested. 


194  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

"  No,  but — what  d'ye  call  it  ? — instinto"  (instinct),  said 
the  overseer.     "  Yes,  that's  it :  it  must  be  instinto." 

Indefinable  words  are  useful  in  such  cases,  but  I  don't 
know  if  the  "  sixth  sense"  which  Schwammerdam  ascribes 
to  birds  of  passage  and  carrier-pigeons  is  a  much  better 
explanation.  I  incline  to  the  theory  that  the  hidden  sense 
or  clairvoyance  of  bats  is  nothing  but  a  very  acute  sense  of 
feeling,  that  intimates  the  neighborhood  of  a  solid  obstacle 
before  they  come  in  actual  contact  with  it.  Sensitive  per- 
sons walking  in  a  dark  corridor  may  notice  that  a  sort  of 
physical  presentiment  gives  them  timely  warning  if  they 
are  going  to  bump  their  head  against  a  wall  or  pillar. 

On  the  ridge  of  the  San  Rafael  range  we  got  a  glimpse 
of  the  Val  de  Perote,  with  its  yellow  cornfields  and  sombre 
mango-forests.  The  famous  fort  was  not  in  sight,  but  on 
two  opposite  hills,  on  either  side  of  the  camino  real,  the 
old  commercial  highway  between  Vera  Cruz  and  the  cities 
of  the  table-land,  I  distinguished  the  ruins  of  two  ancient 
castles,  La  Fortaleza  and  Torres  Negras,  that  bore  a  striking 
resemblance  to  the  dismantled  chateaux  of  Switzerland  and 
Southern  France.  Among  the  adventurers  that  followed 
in  the  track  of  Cortes  and  Ojeda  there  were  some  enter- 
prising hidalgos  who  hastened  to  fortify  themselves  on  the 
hills  of  the  New  World,  in  the  hope  of  reviving  the  age  of 
feudal  independence  and  romantic  forays,  and  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century  New  Spain  could  boast  of 
some  regular  robber-knights — sans  peur  et  sans  approche — 
defying  gods  and  men  behind  their  inaccessible  battlements. 
But  "they  soon  found  that  the  alcaldes  and  friars  sheared 
their  flocks  too  close  to  leave  much  wool  for  extra-official 
clippers. 

The  last  ten  hours  of  our  march  had  led  us  skyward  at 
the  rate  of  at  least  five  hundred  feet  per  mile,  and  an  occa- 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  195 

sional  chill,  with  a  growing  acceleration  of  the  breathing 
process,  reminded  me  that  we  had  reached  the  region  of 
high  barometers  and  low  thermometers,  that  tests  the  lungs 
of  man  and  discovers  the  defects  of  his  habiliments.  Our 
Tuxpan  converted  his  armhole  serape  into  a  Scotch  plaid, 
and  I  found  that  the  upper  buttons  of  my  coat  were  not 
wholly  expletive.  To  judge  by  the  scale  of  arboreal  vege- 
tation, we  were  about  eleven  thousand  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  Gulf.  The  air  of  such  altitudes  is  not  difficult  to 
breathe  :  on  the  contrary,  it  relieves  asthma  and  pleuritic 
strictures.  The  trouble  is,  that  it  is  not  jiUing  enough  to 
supply  the  organic  laboratory  at  the  ordinary  rate  of  res- 
piration :  it  is  air  diluted  with  ether,  and  a  lungful  of  it 
contains  so  little  oxygen  and  hydrogen  that  the  intervals 
of  respiration  have  to  be  shortened.  Hence  the  distress  of 
diseased  lungs,  whose  functions  are  already  abnormally 
quickened,  and  cannot  be  further  accelerated  without  over- 
straining their  mechanism.  The  climate  of  the  Tierra  Fria, 
therefore,  will  counteract  dyspepsia  and  all  complaints  that 
could  be  relieved  by  vigorous  physical  exercise,  and  it  will 
almost  certainly  cure  incipient  pulmonary  disorders,  but  it 
will  prove  quickly  fatal  to  patients  in  an  advanced  stage  of 
consumption. 

"  This  neighborhood  used  to  have  a  bad  name/'  observed 
Jos4  when  we  crossed  a  broad  ravine  which  in  the  rainv 
season  forms  a  tributary  of  the  Rio  Blanco.  "  The  Orizaba 
stage-coach  was  robbed  here  a  few  years  ago,  and  during 
the  French  occupation  a  trooji  of  guerrillas,  as  they  called 
themselves,  had  their  headquartci-s  in  the  outskirts  of  the 
pinal. —  Que  novedades  hay^'  (what  news?):  "is  the  coa.st 
clear?"  he  hailed  an  old  man  who  had  hitched  his  mule  at 
the  roadside  and  seemed  to  be  taking  a  rest  at  the  foot  of  a 
gnarled  mulberry-tree. 


196  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

"  No  hay  nada"  (nothing  stirring),  replied  the  stranger. 
"  Which  way  are  you Halloo  !"  he  interrupted  him- 
self, "  where  did  you  leave  the  rest  of  the  boys,  old  chum?" 

The  guide  stopped  and  stared.  "  Santa  Virgen  !"  he 
burst  out,  "  if  that  ain't  my  tocayo  (namesake),  my  old 
tocayo,  Don  Jose  Macan  !  Did  you  ever  digest  that  dish 
of  armadillo,  Don  Jose?  Are  we  going  to  have  another 
eating-match  to-night?" 

"  You'll  find  out  if  you  stop  at  my  shanty  to-night," 
laughed  the  old  fellow.  ''  I'll  beat  you  at  a  squirrel -stew, 
with  or  without  pepper,  and  give  you  odds  besides.  I  take 
that  gentleman  for  an  umpire,  and  I  hope  he'll  shoot  you 
if  you  try  to  bribe  him." 

"  Why — mi  santissima  ! — you  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
you  are  still  living  in  that  same  old  trap,  Don  Jose  ?" 

"Of  course  I  do.  Don't  stand  gaping  there  now,  but 
anda — go  ahead — or  it  will  be  another  drawn  game.  Anda, 
te  digo — just  make  that  lazy  Greaser  move  ahead,  sir.  I'll 
overtake  you  before  you  reach  my  place  :  it's  more  than 
four  miles  yet.  You'll  excuse  me :  I'm  just  mending  my 
buckskin  breeches." 

"  All  right !"  I  laughed. 

"  Hurry  up,"  the  guide  called  back,  "  or  we'll  decide  that 
match  without  you." 

"  Who  is  that  ?"  1  inquired,  when  the  mulberry -tree  was 
out  of  sight. 

"  A  trapper,  an  Irish  heretic  from  Poland  or  England," 
said  the  guide,  whose  notions  about  the  subdivisions  of 
Anglo-Saxony  were  somewhat  misty.  "  He  used  to  belong 
to  the  harbor-police  in  Vera  Cruz  six  years  ago,  but  one 
night  he  disappeared,  and  has  lived  in  the  sierra  ever  since. 
Tliey  say  que  se  encaro  al  reves — that  he  came  across  the 
wrong  man,  a  detective,  perhaps ;  but  quien  sabef     It's  no 


LA    TIERRA   FRIA.  197 

concernment  of  ours.     He  is  a  tigrero  now — a  panther-  and 
bear-hunter — and  the  best  hand  we  ever  liad  in  tiiese  parts 


for  catching  such  creatures  alive :  I  know  that  the  ring- 
master of  the  Potosi  arena  paid  him  two  hundred  dollars 
in  a  single  year.  Vermin  are  getting  rather  scarce  in  this 
neighborhood,  but  he  still  lives  on  the  old  place,  it  seems, 
alone  with  his  dogs  and  pigs  in  the  same  shanty  where  I 
saw  him  three  years  ago.  La  Trampa — the  cage — they  call 
it,  because  it  was  first  built  for  a  bear-trap.  We  could 
have  camped  more  comfortably  in  a  ravine  near  here,  but 
his  trap  is  only  two  miles  farther,  and  I  guess  he  can  sell 
us  provisions  enough  to  take  us  through  to  Perote." 

The  hunter  failed  to  overttdte  us,  and  we  sto{)ped  re- 
peatedly, doubtful  if  we  might  venture  to  enter  the  tramj)a 
in  the  absence  of  the  manager ;  but  on  turning  the  flank 
of  a  hill  whose  primitive  vegetation  was  interspersed  with 
a  few  straggling  apple-trees,  we  saw  a  thick  black  smoke 
rise  from  a  coppice  at  our  feet. 

]8 


198  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"  Let's  hurry  up,"  said  Jos4 :  "  there  is  somebody  at 
home,  or  the  trampa  must  be  on  fire." 

"  Why,  I  declare !  it's  the  old  man  himself!"  he  whis- 
pered when  we  reached  a  little  clearing  in  front  of  the 
shanty.  The  mule,  only  half  unsaddled,  was  hitched  to  a 
post,  and  his  owner  was  sitting  on  his  porch  grinding  corn 
or  coifee  in  a  little  hand-mill. 

"  How  on  earth,  or  under  the  earth,  did  you  get  ahead 
of  us  ?"  laughed  the  guide,  starting  back  as  if  he  had  seen 
a  ghost. 

The  trapper  put  his  mill  down  and  leaned  forward  to 
shake  my  hand.  "  You  came  by  way  of  the  old  limekiln, 
didn't  you?"  he  inquired,  without  answering  his  tocayo's 
question. 

"  Yes,  certainly:  isn't  that  the  right  way  ?"  said  the  guide. 

"  I  thought  so :  just  like  a  mule,  following  the  trail  he 
is  used  to,  no  matter  if  it's  six  miles  out  of  the  way.  Didn't 
you  see  that  the  Perote  arrier-os  had  laid  out  a  new  road 
over  the  hill  ?  You  might  have  saved  at  least  half  a 
league.  AVell,  make  yourself  comfortable,"  said  he,  "  and 
excuse  me  a  minute :  I  believe  I  hear  my  cow  down  in  that 
bottom." 

We  slung  our  baggage  to  different  harness-hooks  on  the 
porch,  and  put  our  terrier  under  a  hen-coop,  to  propitiate 
a  pack  of  obstreperous  hounds  at  the  rear  of  the  shanty. 

"  He  says  we  missed  the  right  road  :  did  we,  Jose  ?" 

" Nonsense !"  growled  the  guide.  "The  truth  is  that  he 
himself  has  taken  a  roundabout  way  and  galloped  ahead 
of  us.'* 

"Why?" 

"  I  don't  knoAv,  but  I  believe  that  the  old  chap  is  a  little 
sensitive  about  strangers  coming  here  unawares,  before  he 
has  fixed  things  up  a  bit.     He  seems  to  have  had  a  pretty 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA. 


199 


good  education  in  some  respects,  but  if  his  folks  ever  taught 
him  to  handle  a  scrubbing-brush  and  a  piece  of  soap  he 
must  have  forgotten  all  about  it." 

"  Has  he  ever  been  married  ?" 

" No  :  that's  just  what's  the  matter  with  him,  for  what 
can  you  expect  of  an  old  bachelor  keeping  house  with  a 
litter  of  pigs?  The  miners  in  San  Carlos  used  to  tell  some 
tough  stories  about  his  place:  they  said  that  one  of  his  dogs 
died  of  a  broken  heart  from  having  to  live  in  such  a  pigsty. 
He's  a  smart  carpenter,  though :  lie  has  enlarged  his  trap 
considerably :  this  porch  is  new,  and  he  has  a  good  roof 
now,  I  see." 


•'^^"^4A^ 


I.  A    TRAM  I' A. 


Thetrampa  was  a  rudelogcabin,  built  around  and  into  a 
huge  limestone  bowlder,  a  vertical  cleft  in  the  rock  iiaving 
been  fashioned  into  a  chimney,  while  a  sort  of  rock-cellar 


200  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

with  a  lattice  door  at  the  other  end  of  the  bowlder  served 
the  purpose  of  an  outhouse. 

"That's  his  larder,"  said  Jos6,  "and  he  keeps  it  full. 
He's  living  pretty  high  for  a  hermit." 

"  What  '  eating-match'  was  that  you  were  quizzing  him 
about?" 

"  Oh,  he  was  beaten  that  time,  but  not  fairly:  they  pitted 
him  against  a  fellow  who  had  an  unnatural  appetite,  a  regu- 
lar hunger  disease,  that  obliged  him  to  stuff  like  a  hog- 
tapir.  My  tocayo  here  had  made  a  standing  bet  of  fifty 
dollars  that  he  could  out-drink  and  out-eat  any  native 
Mexican  at  any  kind  of  tipple  or  meat  they  might  fetch 
along;  and  three  years  ago  tlfe  miners  heard  about  a  strange 
Indian  in  tlie  Pintado  settlements  who  had  been  driven  away 
from  his  native  village  on  account  of  his  appalling  appetite. 
He  could  digest  anything  from  a  bushel  of  wild  chestnuts 
to  a  roasted  alligator;  and  when  they  found  out  that  he 
could  even  go  a  broiled  armadillo,  it  struck  them  that  they 
might  risk  fifty  dollars  on  such  a  cihampion,  for  if  a  man  is 
in  his  natural  condition  an  armadillo-steak  works  him  like  a 
dose  of  aroxano  [nux  vomica)^  you  know.  So  they  procured 
half  a  bushel  of  horse-chestnuts  and  three  fat  armadillos,  and 
asked  your  landsman  if  he  would  undertake  to  roast  them  as 
a  supper  for  two,  and  stake  his  championship  on  the  result. 

"  He  said  that  he  had  never  tried  armadillo  before,  but 
that  he  was  sure  he  could  stand  it  if  any  native  Mexican 
could.  Well,  sir,  that  night  there  were  about  sixty  Indians 
around  this  shanty,  and  some  twenty  Blancos,  the  engineer 
of  our  blast-furnace  acting  as  umpire  and  I  as  one  of  the 
seconds.  The  meat  and  things  were  weighed  and  portioned 
out  on  different  dishes ;  and  at  first  I  thought  the  Indian 
was  losing  ground,  but  when  my  tocayo  commenced  on  his 
second  platter  of  steaks  he  turned  about  sixteen  different 


LA    TIERRA    FBI  A.  201 

colors  and  asked  me  to  go  down  to  the  spring  for  a  pitcher 
of  cold  water. 

"I  do  not  know  what  happened  next,  for  just  when  I 
reached  the  spring  I  heard  a  fearful  hurrah,  and  two  min- 
utes after  the  old  man  came  tearing  down  the  road  like  a 
cavalry  horse,  and  the  crowd  was  cheering  and  laughing 
like  lunatics.  The  confusion  was  too  great  to  get  a  sensible 
account  of  the  last  round :  all  I  know  is  that  they  had  got 
the  fifty  dollars.  The  next  morning  I  came  by  here  and 
found  the  door  locked,  but  the  old  man  was  in  bed,  for  I 
heard  hhn  grunt  like  a  four-footer." 

When  the  trapper  returned  with  a  pailful  of  milk  we 
took  supper  on  the  porch,  !^ut  after  sundown  the  wind 
seemed  to  set  from  the  direction  of  the  Orizaba  ice-fields, 
and  drove  us  one  by  one  into  the  interior  of  the  trampa. 
The  narrow  chimney  had  the  advantiige  of  dividing  the 
atmosphere  of  the  shanty  into  a  torrid  and  a  temperate 
zone,  so  that  the  natives  of  different  latitudes  could  select 
their  favorite  climate. 

Don  Jose  M'Cann,  the  "  vermin"  exterminator  of  the 
Rio  Blanco,  was  a  countryman  of  the  snake-destroying 
saint,  but  he  had  been  more  than  sixteen  years  in  the 
Western  hemisphere,  during  which  time  he  had  passed  over 
nearly  every  republic  of  North  and  Central  America,  and 
lost  all  traces  of  his  Milesian  descent,  being  in  manners  and 
appearance  a  perfect  Mexican,  and  had  almost  forgotten  his 
native  language.  He  had  been  in  California,  Arkansas, 
and  Texas,  and  preferred  Western  Arkansas  to  any  other 
part  of  the  United  States,  but  not  to  the  South  Mexican 
highlands. 

"A  man  who  can  rely  on  himself  can  be  more  inde- 
pendent here  than  anywlierc  else  in  the  world,"  he  said  ; 
"  and  if  he's  a  hunter  or  a  farmer  he  wouldn't  be  ruined  by 


202  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

competition.  You  could  not  find  a  better  climate,  either, — 
too  far  south  for  a  cold  winter,  and  too  high  up  for  a  warm 
summer." 

"Wouldn't  you  like  the  foot-hills  better  yet?"  I  in- 
quired ;  "  with  less  snow  and  ice  and  more  wild  fruit?" 

"  I  don't  know,  sir.  The  nights  are  rather  chilly  up 
here,  but  the  day-weather  suits  me  exactly ;  and  there's 
one  great  advantage :  you  can  digest  meat,  and  the  low- 
landers  can't,  unless  they  content  themselves  with  sparrow- 
hawk  rations.  I  could  eat  a  roast  boar  every  Friday,  and 
have  as  good  an  appetite  as  ever  before  the  end  of  the  week. 
They  call  me  a  glutton  and  a  drunkard,  but  since  I  have 
lived  up  here  I  have  never  %&&a.  sick  longer  than  ten  or 
twelve  hours.  A  man  who  had  a  mind  to  diet  for  his 
health  could  outlive  Old  Nick  in  this  sierra.  A  fellow 
doesn't  know  what  the  next  day  may  bring,  but  if  I  should 
get  seriously  sick  I  would  just  lock  my  door  and  open  the 
windows,  and  rely  on  the  mountain-air  to  do  the  rest,  with- 
out any  priest  or  doctor  nosing  round  me." 

"  You  are  self-reliant  in  everything,  it  seems,  but  don't 
you  find  it  rather  dull  M'ork, — in  the  long  winter  nights, 
for  instance  ?" 

The  hermit  picked  a  coal  from  the  embers  and  lighted 
his  pipe.  "  No,  sir,"  said  he.  "  You  wouldn't  think  so 
if  you  had  ever  tried  it  for  a  winter  or  two.  But  an  old 
Mexican  hunter  asked  me  the  other  day  if  I  wasn't  afraid 
to  live  ^lone ;  and  that's  nearer  the  point,  though  it  seems 
a  foolish  question  to  ask  a  man  with  two  rifles  and  four 
dogs,  and  no  money  hardly  about  him.  Trusting  yourself 
with  your  own  thoughts  is  just  like  going  to  an  Indian 
ball :  a  fellow  may  see  more  than  he  has  bargained  for. 
There  are  things  that  never  show  themselves  till  you  are 
alone,  but  if  you  once  make  up  your  mind  that  there  is 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  203 

no  liarin  iu  them,  you  find  out  that  they  are  pretty  good 
company." 

"  Well,  I  suppose  a  man  may  get  used  to  lonosomeness 
as  to  anything  else," 

"  Yes,  but  that's  not  what  I  mean,  sir.  He  may  get  so 
'  used'  to  it  that  he  will  be  sorry  he  didn't  begin  sooner. 
Have  you  ever  been  in  the  army,  sir  ?" 

"Why?" 

"Because  an  old  soldier  would  know  from  experience 
that  I  am  right.  If  a  man  has  to  go  on  post  it  may  rile 
him  to  be  waked  in  his  best  sleep,  but  if  he  has  been  out 
for  an  hour  or  two,  especially  on  picket-guard  or  in  a  dark, 
calm  night,  where  he  can  dream  with  his  eyes  open,  it's  ten 
to  one  that  he  will  be  sorry  to  hear  the  relief  come  round : 
it's  like  being  interrupted  in  a  pleasant  conversation.  It 
makes  time  pass  you  don't  know  how,  and  much  faster 
than  before  sunset,  because  in  daytime  a  man  can  never  be 
entirely  alone." 

"  According  to  that,  it  would  not  interfere  with  your 
comfort  if  they  should  lock  you  up  and  keep  you  in  solitary 
confinement?" 

"  Yes,  it  would  :  I  like  fried  trout  and  open-air  exercise. 
And,  to  say  the  truth,  there  is  something  else :  a  man  wants 
to  have  a  pet.  It  would  make  people  happier  if  they  all 
knew  that,  especially  if  they  knew  that  it  needn't  be  a 
human  being.     I'm  better  oif  with  my  dogs." 

"  At  least  if  you  count  upon  gratitude." 

"Yes;  and  they  ain't  bad  company,  either.  You  have 
no  idea  how  they  get  used  to  you  if  yon  are  alone  with  thciu 
for  weeks  together :  the  worst  of  it  is  that  it  comes  so  awful 
hard  on  a  fellow  to  lose  a  creature  of  that  kind.  I  bought 
a  fine  Scotch  deerhound  in  Baltimore  in  '66  :  I  had  hiui 
nearly  eight  years,  and  I  tell  you,  sir,  I  felt  like  shooting 


204  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

myself  when  I  lost  him.  The  Greasers  poisoned  him,  be- 
cause he  wouldn't  let  them  come  near  my  smoke-house  at 
night.  No  square,  straightforward  poison  either,  for  it  took 
him  a  whole  week  to  die :  it  just  went  through  me  like  a 
knife  to  hear  him  whine,  and  perhaps  I  ought  to  have  put 
him  out  of  his  misery,  but  I  was  thinking  of  all  the  scrapes 
we  had  lielped  each  other  out  of, — we  had  frozen  and  starved 
together  all  over  Texas  and  Arkansas, — and  I  couldn't  kill 
him  while  there  was  a  ghost  of  a  chance  of  his  pulling 
through." 

The  voice  of  the  old  rough  became  inarticulate  at  the 
recollection.  He  had  spread  the  dog's  couch  at  the  side  of 
his  own  bed,  and  patted  his  shaggy  coat  till  he  lay  silent 
and  motionless.  But  late  in  the  evening,  when  the  logs  in 
the  fireplace  had  almost  flickered  their  last,  the  hound  raised 
his  head  and  placed  it  upon  his  master's  arm,  looked  into 
his  eyes  and  sank  back  dead, — like  the  last  pressure  of  a 
human  hand,  "  a  '  farewell'  mutely  spoken,  but  not  easy  to 
forget." 

My  companions  had  ensconced  themselves  in  a  recess  of 
the  chimney-corner,  and  snored  a  quartet  with  two  asthmatic 
pigs  under  the  board  floor  of  the  shanty,  and  for  a  while  I 
hesitated  between  the  popular  night-air  superstition  and  a 
private  antipathy  or  prejudice  against  heated  dormitories ; 
but  after  a  look  at  the  cro\vded  floor  I  unbuckled  my 
blanket-roll  and  spread  my  couch  on  the  moonlit  porch. 
The  intermittent  breath  of  the  night-wind  swelled  or  muf- 
fled the  voice  of  a  waterfall,  and  at  larger  intervals  the 
silence  of  the  upper  pinal  was  broken  by  a  sudden  scream  : 
it  was  the  hour  when  the  panther-cat  descends  from  the 
crest  of  the  hemlock-fir  where  she  lurks  during  the  day, 
and  the  pine-marten  leaves  its  hidden  nest  to  steal  along  the 
branches  and  surprise  the  slumbering  birds.      Our  dogs 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  205 

ignored  such  noises,  but  attested  their  watchfulness  by  a 
sotto-vocc  growl  when  the  lower  valleys  echoed  the  galioj) 
of  a  nocturnal  rider, — perhaps  a  belated  gambler  or  a  miner 
returning  from  the  rancho  of  his  dusky  amante. 

The  next  morning  the  mountains  were  shrouded  with  a 
persistent  fog,  and  our  host  accompanied  us  across  the  })la- 
teau  to  the  brink  of  a  declivity,  where,  in  accordance  with 
his  prediction,  wc  emerged  from  the  clouds  into  the  sunshine 
of  the  eastern  slope. 

"  Well,  compaiieros,  now  you  can't  miss  your  road,"  said 
he :  "  if  you  follow  this  creek  you'll  strike  the  camino  at 
the  river.  From  there  you  can  take  the  Perote  trail  across 
the  San  Inez  range ;  but  if  this  fog  should  overtake  you, 
you  had  better  follow  the  camino  and  stop  at  Mr.  Urban's 
place  for  supper.  By  the  by,  sir :  there  you  ciin  see  the 
benefit  of  raountain-air :  he's  a  pretty  old  buck,  but  his 
father  is  living  in  the  same  house,  and  if  you  go  out  in  the 
yard  you  can  see  his  grandfather  chopping  cord-wood.  He 
does  that  every  evening,  and  won't  let  anybody  else  come 
near  the  wood-pile.  His  son  is  eighty-two,  and  he  must 
be  at  least  twenty  years  older,  but  he  still  earns  his  rations 
and  shows  them  that  he  knows  it  if  there  are  garbanzas  for 
dinner.  And  that's  just  the  way  I  am  going  to  live  a  cen- 
tury or  two,"  he  added.  "  In  my  younger  days  I  had  a 
different  plan,  but  this  is  the  best :  a  man  has  to  try  a  good 
many  dishes  before  he  knows  what  really  agrees  with  liim," 

"  You  wouldn't  try  any  more  armadillo-steaks,  then  ?" 
suggested  his  tocayo. 

"  Hush  up,  you  sanducho,  you  skinny  swamp-ape  setting 
up  for  a  guide !  I  could  just  demoralize  you  with  a  single 
kick.  Good-by,  sir,"  said  he,  "  and  don't  forget  that  there 
is  freedom  in  the  Tierra  Fria  if  the  crusaders  down  in 
Potosi  make  things  too  Ixjt  for  you." 


206  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

The  immunity  of  mountaineers  from  physical  and  polit- 
ical diseases  may  be  referred  to  the  same  cause, — the  rug- 
gedness  of  their  territory,  which  keeps  invaders  out  and 
health  in.  On  level  ground  pedestrianism  has  to  be  pur- 
sued to  a  considerable  length  before  it  can  rank  with  the 
health-giving  exercises;  but  if  it  includes  uphill  work,  it 
becomes  a  substitute  for  the  most  elaborate  course  of  hy- 
gienic gymnastics,  and  the  only  reliable  charm  for  exorcising 
the  demon  of  dyspepsia. 

Eastern  Mexico,  like  the  Atlantic  slope  of  our  own  re- 
public, is  favored  by  a  humid  climate,  which  manifests 
itself  in  the  variety  and  exuberance  of  the  arboreal  vege- 
tation. Near  the  junction  of  the  Inez  range  with  the 
Sierra  de  Perote  our  trail  skirted  the  great  Piiial  de  Loreto, 
a  coniferous  jungle  of  sixty  or  seventy  leagues,  whose 
thickets  gave  me  an  idea  how  many  trees  to  the  acre  even 
a  rocky  soil  can  produce  where  the  aggregated  growth  of 
centuries  has  never  been  touched  by  the  earth -desolating 
axe.  There  were  no  creepers,  no  brambles,  and  but  little 
underbrush,  but  the  pines  stood  so  close  together,  and 
crowded  their  neighbors  with  such  a  maze  of  lower  branches, 
that  their  visible  interspaces  extended  rarely  beyond  a  four- 
fold row  of  trees.  A  flock  of  turkeys  that  crossed  our  road 
only  twenty  yards  ahead  of  us  vanished  instantly,  like  rab- 
bits in  a  quickset  hedge,  and,  viewed  from  a  ridge  of  higher 
ground  at  a  horizontal  distance  of  about  half  a  mile,  the 
single  tree-tops  could  no  longer  be  distinguished. 

The  neighboring  Val  de  Loreto  was  the  home  of  the 
Amozocs,  a  race  of  warlike  Indians  who  committed  in- 
human cruelties  among  the  settlers  of  the  Tierra  Templada, 
and  after  having  been  expelled  from  the  lower  valley  took 
refuge  in  the  thickets  of  the  piiial,  from  which  they  made 
frequent  raids  into  the  next  haciendas,  and  once  even  sacked 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  207 

the  town  of  San  Aiigustin,  near  Puebla.  In  1812  the  gov- 
ernor of  Vera  Cruz  ordered  a  general  razzia  against  these 
marauders,  but  it  is  said  that  a  remnant  of  their  tribe  still 
lurks  in  the  inaccessible  mountain-jungles  of  the  Rio  Me- 
sillo,  and  that  hunters  and  miners  have  occasionally  seen 
the  smoke  of  their  wigwams  from  the  heights  of  the  Sierra 
Madre.  No  government  surveyor  has  ever  carried  his 
quadrant  into  this  wilderness :  like  the  swamps  of  Eastern 
Yucatan,  the  piiial  \spays  deningnno, — nobody's  land, — ex- 
empt from  taxation,  not  included  within  the  comarca  limits 
of  any  State  map,  and  never  visited  by  custom-house  spies 
and  begging  friars, — the  abode  of  the  puma,  the  pine-grouse, 
the  bush-panther,  and  who  knows  of  what  other  guests  ? 

AVhen  we  came  unawares  upon  the  ciifPs  of  the  eastern 
slope  a  black  eagle  shot  out  of  the  rocks  at  our  feet,  uttering 
a  curious  whoop,  not  unlike  the  coughing  boom  of  the  bull- 
bat,  as  they  call  a  certain  species  of  nighthawk  in  Northern 
Georgia.  Though  it  seemed  most  unlikely  to  find  unfledged 
eaglets  at  this  time  of  the  year,  we  clambered  all  over  the 
cliff  in  the  hope  of  discovering  the  nest,  misled  by  repeated 
shrill  squeaks  and  twitters,  till  we  found  that  these  sounds 
emanated  from  a  heap  of  bowlders  farther  down,  where  a 
colony  of  marmottos,  or  mountain-weasels,  had  their  bur- 
rows. These  little  mountaineers  build  themselves  commo- 
dious nests,  and  fill  them  with  nuts  and  grass-seeds  at  the 
approach  of  winter,  but  their  domestic  peace  seems  to  be 
disturbed  by  chronic  family  feuds,  perhaps  in  consequence 
of  their  j)olygamous  habits,  for  the  champion  marmotto  of 
each  community  keeps  house  with  a  whole  harem  of  young 
females,  after  driving  his  rivals  into  remote  bachelor  holes. 

I  noticed  that  in  descending  the  eastern  slope  the  conif- 
erous region  is  succeeded  by  a  belt  of  nut-bearing  trees, 
especially  of  the  genus  Juylans, — walnuts,  pecans,  and  hick- 


208  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

ories, — wliile  in  the  West  the  corresponding  altitudes 
jjroduce  chiefly  thorn-trees, — mesquites,  hackberries,  and 
acacias, — besides  diiferent  thorny  shrubs.  In  regions  of  our 
earth  whose  climate  has  been  deteriorated  by  the  outrages  of 
man  upon  the  vegetable  kingdom  it  seems  that  by  a  curious 
by-law  of  Nature  all  larger  plants  become  spinescent, 
as  if  to  protect  them  from  the  hand  of  their  ruthless  de- 
stroyer. From  the  dwarf  cactus  to  the  gigantic  bombax- 
tree,  the  plants  of  the  arid  West  are  bristling  with  spikes 
and  thorns  like  vegetable  hedgehogs,  and  the  ji^lo  venle,  a 
shrub  of  the  North  Mexican  desert,  shows  no  leaves  at  all, 
the  green  bark  answering  their  purpose,  but  is  covered  from 
the  root  up  to  the  extremity  of  the  smallest  twig  with  an 
armor  of  thick-set,  formidable  spines. 

The  sun  had  disappeared  behind  a  cloud-bank  in  the 
southwest  when  we  reached  the  camino  real  on  the  eastern 
flank  of  the  mountains  that  overhang  the  Val  de  Perote. 
The  ramparts  of  the  Sierra  Madre  rise  abruptly  on  either 
side  with  a  majestic  sweep,  barely  allowing  room  for  the 
clambering  pine-forests  that  fringe  the  crags  at  their  feet, 
and,  viewed  from  a  ravine  of  the  opposite  mountains,  could 
hardly  be  suspected  of  enclosing  a  more  fertile  valley  than 
the  cloud-capped  hills  around  the  Andalusian  Vega.  But 
from  the  brow  of  a  hill  about  a  league  west  of  the  castillo 
a  Avide  and  magnificent  view  opens  over  the  northern  dis- 
tricts of  the  State  of  Vera  Cruz  and  the  beautiful  valley  of 
Perote,  with  its  lakes  and  shady  haciendas.  The  horizon 
is  bounded  by  the  Sierra  de  Loreto,  once  the  stronghold  of 
the  long-invincible  Amozocs,  and  the  Peak  of  Perote,  one 
of  the  highest  in  Eastern  Mexico,  rises  immediately  on  the 
right.  The  town  resembles  a  long  straggling  village,  and 
contains  few  buildings  of  more  than  one  story,  but  the 
fortress-hill  that  towers  above  the  terraces  of  its  southern 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA. 


209 


suburb  like  a  huge  Ac'roi)olis  gives  it  an  antique  and,  I 
might  say,  Oriental  appearance. 

The  fortress  of  Perote  used  to  be  called  the  New  Spanish 
Gibraltar,  a  comparison  which  only  the  isolation  of  the 


VAL    1>E    PEROTK    AND    THE  OLD    KURT. 

mountain  could  justify,  but  tlie  rock  is  certainly  steeper 
and  much  higher  than  the  soi-dmmt  inexpugnable  fortress 
of  Ehrenbreitstein  near  Coblentz,  and  the  southern  declivity, 
from  which  a  bridle-path  closely  resembling  a  staircase  winds 
down  to  the  valley  below,  could  easily  be  made  as  inacces- 
sible as  the  sheer  precipices  on  all  other  sides.     But  the 


210  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

construction  of  a  new  higliway  around  the  northern  base  of 
the  sierra  made  the  fortin  a  cornejal, — a  rook-tower,  a  fort 
in  the  wilderness, — and  in  1835  the  arsenal,  together  with 
a  large  part  of  the  garrison  (and  even  the  name  of  El  Cas- 
tillo,— The  Castle,  par  excellence),  was  transferred  to  the 
Presidio  de  San  Carlos,  half  a  league  northeast  of  Perote, 
a  clumsy  quadrangle,  whose  proximity  to  the  junction  of 
two  principal  highways  should  not  have  overruled  the 
strategic  objections  to  its  position  in  an  open  plain. 

At  present  the  old  fortin  is  only  used  as  a  prison  for 
political  culprits  and  soldiers  of  the  regular  army  on  trial 
for  capital  offences.  It  is  the  head-quarters  of  the  preboste 
capitan,  the  chief  executioner  of  the  Mexican  army,  and 
from  the  activity  of  this  official  the  Indians  of  the  neigh- 
boring villages  call  the  fort  "  La  Matagente,"  the  man- 
slaughter-house. 

On  the  ridge  of  the  hill  some  merchants  of  Perote  and 
Vera  Cruz  have  their  summer  residences,  and  their  pleas- 
ure-gardens soften  the  aspect  of  the  stern  battlements  with 
a  background  of  evergreen  foliage.  The  fort  itself  I  recog- 
nized by  the  tricolor  of  the  Mexican  republic,  though  on  a 
meadow  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  we  saw  a  similar  and 
larger  flag,  and  behind  it  a  body  of  men,  which  I  took  for 
a  brigade  of  soldiers  drawn  up  in  close  marching-order. 
But  on  crossing  a  viaduct  over  the  ravine  of  a  mountain- 
creek  I  noticed  that  the  uniforms  of  the  supposed  brigade 
were  largely  mixed  with  scrapes,  and  even  with  the  white 
rebosos,  or  head-shawls,  of  the  Mexican  matrons  of  the 
upper  classes. 

"  What  is  it?"  I  asked  when  we  met  a  trooper  who  had 
watered  a  couple  of  horses  at  the  creek — "  que  hay  ?  an- 
other execution  ?" 

"  No,"  said  he ;  "  only  a  foot-race.     Cardena's  circus  is 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  211 

in  town,  and  one  of  onr  muchachos  has  challenged  their 
champion  runner  and  wrestler.  The  dcs((Jio  is  for  ten  onzas 
(about  one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars)  a  side,  and  they  are 
just  mowing  a  meadow  for  a  race-course." 

Enthusiasm  is  contagious.  I  had  intended  to  dismiss 
my  guide  on  the  same  evening,  and  take  the  stage-coach  to 
Jalapa  and  Potosi,  but  we  all  stayed  till  the  following 
morning  to  witness  the  result  of  the  desafio. 

The  presence  of  a  crack  regiment  of  cavalry  at  Perote 
and  their  weekly  prize-drills  had  fostered  a  spirit  of  gym- 
nastic emulation,  and  the  citizens  had  organized  different 
rifle,  race,  and  bull-ring  "  teams,"  which  frequently  tried 
conclusions  with  the  matadores  of  the  garrison.  Two 
brothers  of  the  neighboring  village  of  Tresmontes,  Luiz 
and  Juan  Vegos,  had  scored  so  many  victories  in  these 
local  contests  that,  like  the  Maccabees,  they  had  come  to 
think  themselves  invincible,  and  Avhen  the  circus  gymnasts 
tried  to  astonish  the  natives  one  of  the  brothers  had  the 
boldness  to  challenge  the  wrestler,  Gil  Rivas,  an  athlete  qf 
national  reputation. 

The  desafio  w  as  threefold, — wrestling,  running,  and  spear- 
throwing,  a  favorite  game  of  the  mounted  lancers, — the 
victor  in  more  than  one  match  to  claim  the  stakes;  and  by 
making  interest  with  the  umpire  the  Peroters  had  carried 
the  shrewd  proviso  that  the  contest  should  begin  with  the 
foot-race. 

The  next  morning  was  cloudy  and  disagreeably  close,  but 
the  population  of  the  comarca  turned  out  en  masse  to  see 
their  champion  put  his  head  in  the  lion's  moutii.  The 
competitors  seemed  not  fivirly  matched.  Gil  Rivas  was  a 
broad-shouldered,  fine-looking  gymnast,  a  native  of  the 
warlike  border  State  of  Nueva  Loon  :  his  rival  wiis  a  mere 
mozo,  a  clean-built  but  slender  lad  of  eighteen  or  twenty ; 


212  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

but  the  Peroters  had  conferred  with  a  council  of  veteran 
strategists,  and  were  resolved  that  the  big  frontiersman 
should  not  have  it  all  his  own  way. 

The  benches  of  the  circus,  supplemented  by  barrels  and 
planks,  formed  the  stage,  and  after  pacing  the  race-course 


THE    FOOT-KACK. 


and  choosing  their  sides  the  champions  deposited  their  slip- 
pers at  the  umpire's  stand  and  dashed  oiF  with  a  fair  start, 
the  mozo  barefoot,  the  circus-man  in  his  stocking  feet.  At 
the  half-mile  post  the  latter  led  by  at  least  six  yards,  but 
after  that  the  mozo  redoubled  his  speed,  and  when  they 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.»  213 

passed  the  stake  Don  Rivas  seemed  to  be  a  trifle  behind. 
But  that  mii>;ht  be  on  account  of  his  fluttering  scarf.  The 
goal-keeper  pronounced  it  a  concurso — a  dead  heat.  The 
same  on  the  second  trial :  the  mozo  hung  back  for  the  first 
four  or  five  hundred  yards,  and  then  overtook  his  rival 
without  any  visible  effort.  The  third  time  he  took  the 
lead,  but  relaxed  on  the  home-stretch  till  his  competitor  all 
but  overtook  him.  Concurso  again.  Mr.  Gil's  comrades 
looked  glum  :  they  began  to  suspect  the  mozo's  stratjigem ; 
but  the  fair  Peroteiias,  who  were  not  in  the  secret,  and  the 
garish  belles  of  the  circus,  rose  in  groups,  waved  their 
manias,  and  cheered  their  respective  favorites  at  the  fourth 
start. 

"  Anda,  Don  Gil !  Viva!  viva!"  '' Anda,  Juanito,  por 
mi  amor,  muchacho .'"  they  screamed,  in  intense  excite- 
ment. 

But  Don  Gil  needed  no  such  stimulus  to  do  his  utmost, 
and  Juanito  could  not  afford  to  gratify  his  fair  friends  just 
yet.  His  confidants  chuckled  behind  their  scrapes.  Three 
more  heats  resulted  in  concursos,  till  the  athlete's  white 
jaqueta  became  gray  with  dust  and  perspiration,  while  his 
rival's  shirt  and  skull-cap  looked  as  dry  as  his  demure 
countenance.  The  circus-men  put  their  heads  together,  and, 
seeing  the  umpire  getting  uneasy,  the  mozo's  friends  whis- 
pered a  word  in  his  ear  when  he  returned  to  the  stand  the 
next  time. 

At  the  seventh  heat  Juanito  let  the  gymnast  forge  ahead 
till  the  contest  seemed  decided,  when  he  suddenly  flung  his 
cap  down,  went  away  like  the  wind,  and  won  the  race  by 
four  or  five  yards,  though  Don  Gil,  seeing  him  come,  had 
finished  with  a  magnificent  spurt  in  the  hope  of  saving  his 
lead.  Shouts  and  vivas  rent  the  air,  for  all  Perote  now 
saw  what  the  sachems  had   known  long  ago, — that  their 

14 


214  SUJ^MEJiLAND   SKETCHES. 

champion  was  dallying  with  his  antagonist  in  order  to  ex- 
haust his  strength  before  tlie  second  match. 

But  the  athlete  had  his  revenge.  After  a  rest  of  ten 
minutes  and  a  glass  or  two  of  pulque  helado,  the  men  stood 
up  to  each  other  in  front  of  the  stage,  and  with  a  sudden 
dodge  Don  Gil  caught  the  youngster  round  the  waist,  and 
was  about  to  force  him  on  his  knees  when  the  Peroters  set 
uj)  ti  general  shout  of  foul  play, — " No  esperd  el  serial!" 
The  circus-man  had  not  waited  for  the  proper  signal,  but 
grabbed  his  man  unawares.  The  athlete  grinned,  and  per- 
mitted his  rival  to  regain  his  equilibrium,  and  then  stood 
still,  waiting  for  the  sefial.  But  Juanito  was  on  his  guard 
this  time,  evaded  the  waist-grip  and  disengaged  his  neck 
by  screwing  his  head  through,  using  his  chin  as  a  lever  and 
his  nape  and  occiput  as  a  sliding  fulcrum.  After  trying  in 
vain  to  get  a  body-hold  from  below,  Don  Rivas  changed 
his  tactics  and  complicated  his  evolutions  by  feints  and  an 
aggressive  use  of  his  knees ;  but  Master  Juan  could  not 
be  tripped,  and  repaid  his  adversary's  thrusts  by  butting 
his  stomach.  During  the  first  six  rounds  Rivas  had  no 
fair  chance  to  bring  his  superior  strength  into  play :  the 
mozo's  head  proved  untenable,  and  he  obviated  all  attempts 
at  his  waist  by  a  movement  which  French  wrestlers  call 
garde  d  coude, — elbow-parrying.  His  chin-and-nape  trick 
seemed  to  answer  a  variety  of  emergencies,  and  he  might 
have  succeeded  in  protracting  the  match  beyond  the  regula- 
tion time  of  forty  minutes  if  his  long  impunity  had  not 
betrayed  him  into  occasional  offensive  manoeuvres.  Stim- 
ulated by  the  applause  of  his  countrymen,  and  perhaps  by 
an  injudicious  suggestion  of  his  second,  he  changed  his 
position  before  the  seventh  round,  and  at  the  word  "  Va  !" 
had  his  man  round  the  leg,  and  attempted  to  trip  him  by 
jerking  his  foot  up  and  throwing  himself  back  with  his  full 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  215 

weight.  Catch  as  catch  can,  strike  where  you  please,  but 
don't  kick,  is  the  rule  of  the  Mexican  wrestling-ring. 

Don  Gil  seemed  to  yield,  but  in  stumbling  forward  bore 
down  upon  his  aggressor  in  a  way  that  obliged  him  to 
clutch  his  arm  in  order  to  save  himself  from  an  underfall. 
In  the  next  moment  he  had  him  round  the  waist,  and,  dis- 
engaging Jiis  right  arm  with  a  sudden  wrench,  he  bent  the 
raozo  backward  till  his  knee-joints  gave  way,  and  in  spite 
of  his  desperate  writhing  and  plunging  the  youngster  was 
prostrated  on  his  native  soil  in  front  of  his  black-eyed 
inamoratas. 

That  made  them  even,  and  the  possession  of  the  ten  onzas 
now  depended  on  the  result  of  the  third  match — echar  lan- 
2;as,  javelin-throwing — an  exercise  which  the  six  lancer  regi- 
ments of  the  regular  army  and  the  use  of  the  hunting-spear 
among  the  half-savage  Indians  have  made  very  popular  in 
Mexico.  The  target  was  the  skull  of  a  goat  stuck  on  a 
short  pole — distance,  sixty  yards.  By  agreement  of  the 
seconds  the  athlete  used  a  short  heavy  spear  of  polished 
boxwood,  while  the  mozo  preferred  the  government  regu- 
lation lance,  which  had  won  him  weekly  victories  on  the 
})arade-ground  of  the  castillo.  Their  proficiency  in  the  use 
of  these  archaic  implements  would  have  won  the  applause 
of  a  Turkestan  robber-knight  and  thrown  Maurice  Thomp- 
son into  ecstasies. 

The  mozo's  friends  were  confident  of  victory,  and  even 
his  former  rivals,  the  soldiers  of  the  garrison,  cheered  up- 
roariously when  he  knocked  the  target  down  at  the  first 
throw.  But  the  frontiersman  showed  that  he  had  not  lived 
among  the  Comanches  in  vain,  for  at  the  end  of  the  first 
two  rounds  each  lanzero  had  scored  one  square  hit  and  one 
"  graze,"  and  when  the  attendant  chulos  returned  them  their 
missiles  the  spectators  leaped  from  their  seats  and  crowded 


216  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

to  the  front  with  utter  disregard  of  civil  rights  and  female 
privileges.  The  ring-master  vociferated,  girls  clambered 
on  the  shoulders  of  their  gallants,  and  even  the  priests  and 
foreign  residents  were  in  a  state  of  fierce  excitement.  Jua- 
nito  declined  the  first  throw,  so  did  his  rival ;  but  before 
the  seconds  had  found  their  dice-box  Don  Gil  had  changed 
his  mind  and  stepped  to  the  front,  spear  in  liand,  with  the 
sangfroid  of  an  old  stager. 

His  javelin  touched  but  failed  to  stir  the  target,  and  the 
silence  became  breathless  when  the  mozo  squared  himself 
for  the  decisive  throw.  He  paused  on  hearing  his  name 
called :  his  second  had  seen  his  arm  tremble,  made  his  way 
through  the  crowd  with  a  bottle  of  aguardiente,  and  offered 
him  a  glass  por  darle  jirmeza — to  steady  himself  if  his  nerves 
should  be  in  need  of  it.  But  Juanito,  smarting  under  the 
sting  of  his  late  defeat,  declined  the  offer  with  an  impatient 
gesture,  and  again  poised  his  lance.  His  hand  trembled 
visibly,  and  once  more  his  second  challenged  him,  but  before 
any  one  could  interfere  he  leaned  back  and  let  drive. 

The  lance  darted  through  the  air  with  an  audible  whizz, 
a  little  too  high,  as  it  seemed,  but  coming  down  in  a  flat 
curve  it  struck  the  jawbone  of  the  strange  target  fair  and 
square.  The  skull  spun  round  like  a  top,  and  when  it  fell 
the  men  of  Perote  rushed  upon  their  champion  like  a  crew 
of  Sumatra  pirates,  snatched  him  up  and  dragged  him  away : 
regardless  of  his  modest  protests,  of  the  shower  of  bouquets 
and  the  pouting  of  disappointed  lips,  they  rushed  him  off  to 
the  rear  of  the  circus-tent,  where  the  manager  had  left  a 
splendid  roan  stallion  as  security  for  the  payment  of  the  ten 
onzas,  and  amidst  shouts  that  were  echoed  by  the  cliffs  of 
the  Sierra  Madre  they  lifted  him  up  and  upon  the  horse, 
which,  though  wild  with  terror,  could  not  stir  a  leg  in  the 
crowd  that  pressed  around  it  in  a  compact  mass.     "  Did  he 


LA    TIERRA    FRIA.  217 

like  the  horse?  Would  he  prefer  it  to  the  cash?"  Tlie 
owner  valued  it  at  twenty-five  on/as,  but  the  colloction  was 
taken  up  in  a  minute,  and  the  multitude  surged  back,  drag- 
ging horse  and  rider  along  till  they  stopped  in  front  of  the 
stage,  where  they  surrendered  their  victim  to  the  mad  mu- 
chachas. 

The  population  of  Perote  and  Tresraontes  was  crowded 
together  within  a  space  of  forty  yards  around  the  stage — 
merchants,  muleteers,  priests  and  soldiers — in  a  confused 
mass,  all  shrieking  and  gesticulating  like  Donnybrookers, 
laughing,  bragging,  and  cheering,  and  shaking  hands  with 
all  the  friends  and  relatives  of  the  victor. 

A  troop  of  ragged  Indians  that  had  come  from  the  moun- 
tains at  the  northern  border  of  the  comarca  were  standing 
together  in  the  rear  rank,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  poor 
devils  gave  me  an  idea  what  the  rapture  of  gymnastic  conj- 
petition  must  have  been  in  a  country  Avhere  every  male  adult 
was  an  athlete  at  a  time  when  men  did  not  think  it  neces- 
sary to  despise  earthly  things  for  the  love  of  heaven. 

The  sages  of  that  time  inclined  to  the  view  that  this  world 
has  been  created  for  its  own  sake — nay,  that  it  might  just 
be  possible  to  enjoy  paradise  on  this  side  of  the  grave — and 
our  system  of  ethics  takes  alarm  at  the  mere  mention  of  such 
heresies;  but  we  have  begun  to  rediscover  a  truth  which 
was  familiar  enough  to  those  Nature-taught  lieathens — 
namely,  that  the  highest  moral  and  physical  well-being 
cannot  be  attained  separately,  but  must  go  hand  in  hand, 
like  thought  and  action,  or  will  and  force ;  and  I  hope  that 
the  time  will  come  when  every  school-house  shall  have  its 
gymnasium  and  every  village  its  arena,  for  only  tiien  can  we 
celebrate  our  recovery  from  the  Semitic  pest,  which  has 
turned  our  proudest  forests  into  deserts  and  our  noblest  men 
into  monks.     The  ancient  Greeks  reckoned  their  dates  from 


218  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

the  institution  of  the  Olympic  festivals,  and  their  re-estab- 
lishraent  would  indeed  mark  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  a 
world  which  had  so  long  forgotten  that  God  is  the  Creator 
of  our  bodies  as  well  as  of  our  souls. 

What  nation  will  inaugurate  that  revival? 


CHAPTER    VII. 

THE   VALLEY   OF   OAXACA. 

Mariners  who  reach  this  strand 
Will  renounce  their  native  land. 

Tasso  :    L'Orto  d'Armida. 

The  most  enviable  homesteads  on  earth  are  generally 
supposed  to  be  the  suburban  villas  of  some  Eastern  capitals, 
whose  environs  have  been  reclaimed  by  Nature,  and  thus 
combine  the  peace  and  the  verdure  of  a  rustic  solitude  with 
the  opportunities  of  a  great  commercial  metropolis,  as  the 
gardens  of  Castellamare  near  Naples,  or  the  Val  d'Arno, 
which  Chateaubriand  calls  an  "  Arcadian  faubourg,  and  for 
the  abode  of  an  independent  human  being  the  most  desira- 
l)le  site."  But  that  claim  might  be  disputed  by  some  of 
the  mountain-regions  of  our  continent,  which  enjoy  the 
abundance  of  the  tropics  together  with  the  immunities  of  a 
higher  latitude,  and  compensate  tiieir  inhabitants  for  the 
absence  of  a  few  artificial  luxuries  by  a  lavish  and  gratui- 
tous supply  of  their  daily  natural  wants. 

The  happiest  situation  of  this  kind  is  perhaps  that  of  the 
terrace-land  which  the  agents  of  Maximilian  selected  for 
the  reservation  of  a  Swiss  colony  on  the  heights  of  a  plateau 
tiiat  overlooks  the  incomparable  Valley  of  Oaxaca.  Tlie 
Rio  Verde,  which  drains  this  valley,  empties  into  the  Pacific 
near  the  upper  istiimus  of  our  continent.  Eight  hundred 
miles  northwest  of  torrid  Panama  the  American  mainland 
contracts  to  one-fiftieth  of  its  breadth  between  Baltimore 
and  San  Francisco,  and  the  traveller  who  disembarks  at 

219 


220 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


Alvarado,  on  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  can  reach 
the  Pacific  coast  after 
a  leisurely  ride  of  two 
or  three  days.  The 
climate,  therefore,  is 
insular,  the  sun  of 
South  Mexico  tem- 
pered by  the  breezes 
of  two  oceans,  while 
the  excessive  moisture 
is  moderated  by  the  elevation  of  the  central  i^lateau.  West 
and  southwest  of  the  isthmus  and  along  the  spurs  of  the 
Sierra  Madre  the  lowlands  of  Tehuantepec  spread  their 
swamps  around,  and  the  lower  forty  miles  of  the  Rio  Verde 
lead  through  the  depths  of  a  forest-region  whose  annual 


FALLS    OF    THE    RIO    VERDE. 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA.  221 

rainfall  exceeds  seventy  inches,  and  whose  exuberance  of 
animal  and  vegetable  life  would  make  it  a  Garden  of  Ava- 
lon  if  mosquitoes  and  perennial  thunderstorms  were  com- 
patible with  an  abode  of  the  blest ;  but  within  easy  reach 
of  this  wonderland  of  tro])ical  marvels  and  treasures  the 
Llanos  Ventosos,  or  "Wind  Plains,"  of  the  Sierra  de  San 
Miguel  rival  the  summer  climate  of  the  Maritime  Alps, 
and  derive  their  moisture-supply  less  from  the  clouds  than 
from  the  dew  of  the  cool,  clear  nights  and  the  unfailing 
springs  of  the  Central  Sierra. 

I  crossed  this  region  in  the  summer  of  1876,  in  the  midst 
of  the  rainy  season,  and  was  astonished  at  the  contrast  of  the 
cloudless  heights  with  the  reeking  atmosphere  of  the  Tierra 
Caliente,  whose  mists  and  showers  were  even  then  confined 
to  the  lower  two  thousand  feet,  the  undulating  plains  and 
the  slopes  of  the  foot-hills,  while  all  above  was  serene  and 
dry  as  an  October  day  in  the  southern  Apennines.  From 
the  cliifs  of  the  Llanos  Ventosos  the  wanderer  looks  down 
upon  an  ocean  of  clouds  and  driving  fog,  which  boils  up 
from  a  thousand  valleys  and  far-stretching  coast-forests,  and 
often  submerges  the  island-like  summits  of  the  foot-hills; 
but  if  the  spray  of  the  misty  sea  should  sprinkle  the  rocks 
at  his  feet,  he  may  ascend  to  higher  and  drier  ground,  as 
the  rambler  on  a  rocky  beach  retreats  from  the  rising  tide. 
Hazy  white  cloudlets  drift  over  the  surging  fog,  gloomy 
vapors  bulge  up  from  the  jungles  and  stand  like  looming 
hills  on  the  horizon,  and  in  August  and  September  this 
cloud-panorama  seems  often  as  immeasurable  as  the  azure 
vault  above,  but  its  upper  limits  are  always  clearly  defined, 
and  while  the  sun  remains  above  the  horizon  the  peaks  of 
the  Sierra  de  San  Miguel  are  rarely  dimmed  by  a  shadow. 

Our  steamer  left  Acapulco  in  a  thick  squall,  and  all  along 
the  coast  from  Cape  Lopez  to  Tehuantepec  the  land  was 


222  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

veiled  by  a  shroud  of  rain-clouds  till  toward  sunset,  when 
the  horizon  partly  cleared,  and  between  the  gray-green 
coast-hills  the  vapor  could  be  seen  rising  from  the  valleys 
as  the  white  steam  from  our  boiler-valves;  but  far  beyond 
the  coast,  beyond  the  cloud-bank  and  beyond  the  horizon 
itself,  the  blue  heights  of  the  Sierra  Madre  stood  revealed 
like  the  aerial  forms  of  another  world.  When  the  setting 
sun  gilded  their  crests  the  effect  was  strange  indeed — a 
long-stretched,  sombre  fog-bank  crowned  with  gleaming 
pinnacles,  mountain-capt  clouds  instead  of  cloud-capt  moun- 
tains. 

We  reached  the  offing  of  Tehuantepec  at  ten  o'clock  on 
the  following  morning,  and,  as  the  mail-skiflp  of  our  steamer 
looked  rather  overloaded,  I  stayed  behind  and  asked  them 
to  engage  a  shore-yawl.  The  weather  was  oppressively 
sultry,  and  when  our  engines  ceased  to  puif  we  heard  the 
growl  of  an  approaching  thunderstorm.  Before  the  boats 
returned  the  coast  wind  spattered  the  deck  with  big  drops 
of  rain,  but  my  baggage  was  handed  down  as  soon  as  the 
yawl  came  alongside,  and  I  had  to  follow.  Two  minutes 
after,  the  squall  broke  upon  us  with  a  torrent  of  rain  and 
spray  that  drenched  me  to  the  skin  in  less  than  ten  seconds. 
Our  outrigger  was  torn  into  shreds,  the  boatmen  crouched 
under  the  thwarts,  denouncing  the  shortcomings  of  their 
patron  saint  in  the  most  unequivocal  terms,  and  for  more 
than  twenty  minutes  we  were  unable  to  face  the  storm.  At 
length,  taking  advantage  of  the  varying  wind,  we  readjusted 
the  remnants  of  our  jib-sheet,  and  managed  to  reach  the  pier, 
as  wet  as  if  we  had  come  up  from  the  bottom  of  the  Pacific. 

I  went  to  the  agency  of  the  Tabasco  mail-coach,  and, 
finding  doors  and  shutters  closed,  inquired  for  the  alcalderia, 
the  city  mayor's  office.  My  business  being  semi-official, 
the  deputy  alcalde  put  his  "  house  and  services  at  my  dis- 


THE    VALLEY  OF  O  AX  AC  A.  223 

position,"  but  warned  rae  that  I  sliould  have  to  prepare  for 
some  delay,  as  no  conveyance  of  any  kind  had  crossed  the 
flooded  Tierra  Caliente  for  the  last  ten  days,  and  there  was 
no  saying  if  the  diligencia  would  resume  its  regular  trips 
before  the  end  of  the  month.  But  further  inquiry  elicited 
the  fact  that  the  Trans- Continental  Stage  Company  still 
despatched  a  weekly  coach  from  San  Miguel  in  the  Sierra 
Madre,  which  might  possibly  be  reached  by  taking  a  coast- 
boat  to  Guatalco,  from  where  the  trails  through  the  Tierra 
Caliente  were  less  subaqueous  than  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood of  Tehuantepec.  I  could  not  learn  the  precise 
day  on  which  the  stage  would  leave  its  present  western 
terminus,  but  I  preferred  to  wait  in  the  Sierra  Madre,  where 
a  delay  of  a  few  days  would  give  me  a  long-desired  opi)or- 
tunity  of  visiting  the  Swiss  settlement  near  San  Miguel. 
Guatalco  is  nothing  but  a  wharf  with  a  few  abandoned 
harbor-sheds,  so  I  was  advised  to  engage  a  guide  and  carrier 
at  Tehuantepec.  The  latter  was  soon  found,  but  the  few 
professional  camlnadors  ("way-makers")  of  the  little  town 
confessed  their  ignorance  of  the  Guatalco  trail,  and  disin- 
terested parties,  as  well  as  my  landlord,  assured  me  that  I 
had  better  rent  a  week-room  and  wait  for  the  next  diligencia 
or  mule-caravan  than  tempt  the  dangers  of  an  unknown 
road  in  the  worst  week  of  the  rainy  season. 

I  was  on  the  point  of  adopting  their  ])lan  when  I  learned 
that  a  Swiss  colonist,  who  had  been  involved  in  a  suit  before 
the  probate  court,  was  still  boarding  at  one  of  the  down- 
town posadas.  He  |)roved  to  be  familiar  with  a  quite 
practicable  trail,  and  very  anxious  to  return  if  he  could 
come  to  terms  with  the  authorities.  It  appeared  that  the 
son  of  a  Swiss  ranchero  at  San  Miguel  had  been  apprenticed 
to  a  Tehuantepec  harness-saddler,  and  when,  after  the  death 
of  his  father,  his  mother  sent  one  of  her  neighbors  to  brijig 


224  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

her  son  home,  the  saddler  stuck  to  the  terms  of  the  inden- 
ture and  refused  to  let  him  go.  After  a  private  interview 
with  the  artificer  in  leather  and  iron,  I  went  to  the  mayor's 
office,  and  the  old  Switzer  nearly  dislocated  my  wrist  when 
J  informed  him  that  the  alcalde  had  compounded  the 
difficulty. 

It  had  rained  day  and  night  for  the  last  forty-eight  hours, 
but  we  hired  a  boat  on  the  same  forenoon,  and  before  dark 
reached  Guatalco,  where  we  encamped  in  one  of  the  open 
sheds  and  dried  our  clothes  before  a  roaring  fire  of  shingles 
and  pitch-buckets.  After  dark  its  glare  was  reflected  from 
the  dense  drizzling  fog  as  from  a  screen,  but  my  Mexican 
carrier  assured  us  that  such  weather  could  not  last  much 
longer,  even  in  the  wettest  season.  Three  days  of  uninter- 
rupted rain  was  about  the  maximum,  he  said,  and  this  night 
would  wind  it  up.  Yet  the  next  morning  dawned  late  and 
chilly,  and  the  monotonous  patter  on  the  shingle  roof  of 
our  shed  still  continued.  Hadn't  we  better  stay  and  build 
another  fire  ? 

No,  said  the  Switzer :  if  the  rain  would  not  leave  us,  we 
could  leave  the  rain :  a  four  hours'  march  inland  and  up- 
ward would  bring  us  to  a  different  climate.     Vorwiirts ! 

My  carrier  had  been  right,  though.  We  had  a  glimpse 
of  the  sun  before  we  finished  our  short  breakfast,  and  when 
we  plunged  into  the  maze  of  the  forest  the  occasional  vistas 
through  the  leafy  vault  revealed  larger  and  larger  patches 
of  bright  blue  sky.  Our  so-called  road,  however,  was 
worse  than  anything  I  had  ever  seen  or  heard  of  Flemish 
or  South  Louisiana  synonymes  of  that  word — miry  lagoons 
and  spongy  mud  as  black  and  as  sticky  as  pitch.  I  followed 
at  the  heels  of  my  carrier,  who  preferred  the  lagoons  and 
seemed  to  find  the  shallow  places  by  a  sort  of  instinct,  and 
the  Switzer  managed  to  propel  his  heavy  boots  through  the 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA.  225 

toughest  quagmire;  but  his  boy,  after  losing  his  shoes  five 
or  six  times,  slung  them  across  his  shoulder  and  splashed 
on  barefoot.  We  kept  through  a  comparatively  open  forest 
of  Cottonwood-  and  tulip-trees,  with  a  dense  jungle  on  our 
right-hand  side,  while  on  our  left  the  land  sloped  toward 
the  bottom  of  the  Rio  Verde,  which  is  here  about  five 
hundred  paces  wide,  and  during  the  rainy  season  fills  its 
muddy  banks  to  the  brink. 

These  lower  coast-forests  abound  in  gigantic  trees,  whose 
fruits  are  only  accessible  to  the  winged  and  four-handed 
denizens  of  the  forest,  but  farther  uj>  the  river-shores  are 
lined  for  miles  with  a  dense  growth  of  wild-growing  plan- 
tains, of  which  the  natives  distinguish  four  varieties  under 
as  many  different  names.  The  fruit  of  the  largest,  the 
cuernavacas  ["  cow-horns"),  attains  a  weight  of  seven  pounds, 
and  resembles  in  shape  the  crooked  pod  of  the  tamarind 
rather  than  the  cucumber-shaped  little  bananas  which 
reach  our  Northern  markets.  They  ripen  very  slowly,  and 
often  rot  on  the  tree  before  they  become  eatable,  but  the 
Mexicans  cure  them  over  a  slow  fire  of  embers  and  green 
brushwood,  after  which  their  taste  can  hardly  be  distin- 
guished from  that  of  the  finest  yellow  bananas.  Palm- 
trees  mingle  here  with  the  massive  stems  of  the  cottonwoods, 
talipot  palms  and  tiie  palma  jwieta,  whose  nut  might  become 
a  profitable  article  of  export,  having  a  close  resemblance  to 
a  filbert.  The  plum-clusters  of  the  mango  can  only  be 
reached  by  a  bold  climber,  as  the  trunk  rises  like  a  mast, 
often  perfectly  free  from  branches  for  eighty  or  ninety  feet, 
and  tiie  chief  beneficiaries  of  this  region  are  still  the  macaws 
and  squirrel- monkeys;  but  farther  up  Pomona  becomes 
more  condescending,  and  the  ancient  Gymnosophists,  whose 
religion  restricted  true  believers  to  a  diet  of  wild-growing 
tree-fruits,   would    have   found   their  fittest    home   in    the 


226  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

terrace-land  between  the  lower  twenty  miles  of  the  Rio 
Verde  and  the  foot-hills  of  the  Sierra  de  San  Miguel. 
Plum-bearing  bushes  abound  from  June  to  September  with 
red,  yellow,  and  wax-colored  fruit ;  the  mora,  or  wild  mul- 
berry-tree, literally  covers  the  ground  with  its  dark,  honey- 
sweet  berries ;  the  crown  of  the  piflo  palm  is  loaded  with 
grape-like  clusters,  which,  struck  by  a  cudgel,  discharge  a 
shower  of  rich  acorn-shaped  nuts;  guavas,  alligator-pears, 
mamayos,  chirimoyas,  and  wild  oranges  display  flowers  and 
fruit  at  the  same  time,  and  under  the  alternate  influence  of 
heat  and  moisture  produce  their  perennial  crops  with  un- 
failing regularity  ;  the  algarobe  {Mimosa  slliqua),  a  species 
of  mezquite  not  larger  than  an  apple-tree,  yields  half  a  ton 
of  the  edible  pods  known  as  carob-beans  or  St.  John's 
bread ;  the  figs  of  the  gigantic  banyan-tree  furnish  an 
aromatic  syrup ;  the  trunks  of  the  Robinia  viridis  exude  an 
edible  gum ;  and  from  the  vine-tangle  forming  the  vault 
of  the  forest  hang  the  bunches  and  clusters  of  forty  or  fifty 
varieties  of  wild  grapes,  many  of  them  superior  to  our 
scuppernongs  and  catawbas,  while  the  amber-colored  uva 
real  rivals  the  flavor  of  the  finest  Damascene  raisin-grapes. 
A  forced  march  of  ten  hours  throug-h  fens  and  silent 
virgin  woods  brought  us  at  last  to  the  hummock  regiou  : 
the  plain  swelled  into  mounds  and  the  currents  of  the  slug- 
gish bayous  became  more  perceptible.  The  higher  levels 
showed  vestiges  of  cultivation  :  we  crossed  dikes  and  ditches, 
a  neglected  fence  here  and  there ;  and  where  the  larger  trees 
had  been  felled  grapes  and  liana  figs  covered  even  the 
bushes  and  hedges  in.  incredible  profusion.  A  troop  of 
capuchin-monkeys  leaped  from  a  low  mango-tree,  and  two 
stumbling  youngsters  who  brought  up  the  rear  in  the  scram- 
ble for  the  high  timber  would  have  tempted  us  to  a  chase 
if  we  had  not  been  anxious  to  reach  less  malarious  quarters 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA.  227 

before  night.  Tiie  neighborhood  of  the  great  swanijxs  still 
betrayed  itself  by  that  peculiar  miasmatic  odor  which  ema- 
nates from  stagnant  pools  and  decaying  vegetable  matter, 
and  in  the  recesses  of  the  forest  fluttered  the  slate-colored 
swamp-moth,  the  ominous  harbinger  of  the  mosquito.  The 
tipulary  pests  were  getting  ready  for  action :  their  skir- 
mishers, the  sancudos  and  moscas  negras,  had  already  opened 
the  campaign,  and  became  sensible  as  well  as  audible  in 
spite  of  the  rapidity  of  our  march.  One  of  the  twilight 
species,  the  mosca  ddgada,  a  straw-colored  little  midge, 
bites  like  a  fire-ant, — a  mischievous,  and,  it  seems,  unprac- 
tical, freak  of  Nature,  since  the  superfluous  virulence  of  its 
sting  must  certainly  interfere  with  the  business  facilities  of 
a  suctorial  insect. 

"  Halloo !  here  is  the  corduroy  road :  we  are  near  the 
Casa  Blanca  now,"  cried  the  boy,  who  trotted  ahead  of  us 
wherever  the  thickets  were  not  toocruelly  matted. 

"  A  hacienda,  I  suppose  ?  Couldn't  we  get  there  before 
night?" 

"  Yes,  a  fine  country-seat — Mr.  Lacerda's  place,"  said 
the  senior  Switzer :  "  there  is  land  belonging  to  it  all  the 
way  up  to  San  Miguel.  Still,  I  would  advise  you  to  give 
the  casa  a  wide  berth.  The  owner  is  on  his  last  legs,  drop- 
sical and  decrepit,  and  the  place  is  now  bossed  by  a  set  of 
scandalous  shrews.  Miss  Nancy  Lacerda  and  her  mother 
were  up  in  our  village  last  year, 'and  my  uncle  Fritz  lodged 
them  in  his  parlor  and  treated  them  to  the  best  his  place 
aifords, — anyhow,  never  charged  them  a  cent,  I  am  sure, — 
and  how  do  you  think  they  paid  us  ?  By  ridiculing  his 
poor  old  Swiss  jacket  and  slandering  our  girls  for  not  wear- 
ing rebosos^'  (a  veil-like  head-dress).  "Confound  their 
tongues !  No,  no :  I  would  rather  sit  in  the  stocks  all  night 
than  trust  myself  in  that  den  of  venomous  vixens." 


228  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

Seeing  I  looked  disappointed,  "  Never  mind,"  said  he, 
''  I'll  get  you  to  a  fine  trapiche — a  cotton-gin — before  night : 
none  of  your  tumbledown  i-emolinas,  but  a  mill  with  a 
strong  roof  and  planed  floors,  all  in  good  order  except  the 
machinery.  It  was  built  by  a  man  from  Texas,  who  bought 
land  in  this  bottom  twelve  years  ago,  but  was  gone  before 
we  came  here.  '  The  rancho  of  the  crazy  Americair,'  they 
used  to  call  the  place.  He  couldn't  agree  with  his  neigh- 
bors, thev  say,  and  hedged  his  place  in,  threatening  to  shoot 
any  one  at  sight  who  should  dare  to  cross  his  fence.  No 
doubt  we  should  hear  a  different  tale  if  we  could  see  the 
man  himself." 

"  No  mosquitoes  there,  I  hope  ?" 

"  No,  not  in  the  loft.  That's  the  best  of  it ;  they  never 
bother  you  in  a  high,  open  building,  unless  there  are  higher 
trees  close  by — maybe  on  account  of  the  draught,  for  a  good 
breeze  blows  them  away  like  smoke,  you  know.  The  Greas- 
ers say  they  never  go  higher  than  twenty  feet  above  the 
level  ground,  because  the  upper  air  belongs  to  St.  Hubert, 
who  does  not  tolerate  witches  and  gnats  in  his  depart- 
ment." 

The  evening  mist  rose  from  the  saturated  ground  and  the 
woods  began  to  darken.  "  Dios  mio  !"  grunted  the  car- 
rier, slapping  his  neck  left  and  right:  " ya  vienen — we  are 
in  for  it :  here  they  come." 

Yes,  they  were  upon  us :  the  nocturnal  host  of  the  Fly- 
god  was  in  the  field,  and  a  humming  cloud  of  invisible  pur- 
suers tracked  our  march  like  the  ghost  of  a  bloodhound. 
We  kept  on  through  bushes  and  brambles,  across  anthills 
and  fallen  trees,  till  the  boy  was  getting  blown  and  foot- 
sore, but  when  we  tried  to  rest,  sitting  or  standing,  the 
whining  falsetto  of  the  little  vampires  increased  rapidly  to 
a  fierce  buzz  that  soon  made  us  take  to  our  heels  again. 


i 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA.  229 

Our  guide,  who  had  pressed  forward  in  silent  liaste,  began 
to  peer  around  in  a  way  that  made  nie  a  h'ttle  uneasy  till  a 
full  hour  after  sunset,  when  we  stumbled  upon  a  bramble- 
covered  clearing,  and  a  regular  Appenzell  view-halloo 
whoop  reassured  my  mind  :  "  Z'Gott,  Herr  Landsman,  we 
found  him  !     Now  for  the  trapiche  !" 

The  cotton-gin  loomed  at  the  farther  end  of  the  field, 
and  was  taken  by  storm  over  piles  of  muck  and  scattered 
fence-rails.  Seeing  no  ladder,  we  clambered  through  the 
pivot-hole  in  the  ceiling  of  a  musty-smelling  machine-shed, 
but  in  the  open  loft  above  we  found  a  delicious  breeze,  and 
— St.  Hubert  be  praised  ! — not  a  single  mosquito. 

The  carrier  threw  himself  upon  his  pack  with  a  sigh  of 
relief,  and  we  squatted  around  the  hatch  to  cool  off  before 
we  opened  our  mess-bag. 

From  the  hills  on  our  right  came  the  perfume  of  bloom- 
ing tamarisks,  and  from  the  jungle  below  a  cool  lake  air, 
and  at  times  strange  voices  of  the  wilderness — the  hoarse 
bark  of  a  cayman,  answered  by  the  shriek  of  swamp-geese 
in  the  canebrakes  of  the  Rio  Verde,  and  in  the  distance 
now  and  then  a  queer  rustling  sound,  like  the  shaking  of  a 
tree  butted  by  some  heavy  animal.  Bats  were  circling 
above  our  heads  in  the  moonlight,  and  our  advent  seemed 
to  have  excited  the  curiosity  of  a  troop  of  flying  squirrels, 
who  uttered  their  chirping  squeak  now  on  the  roof,  now  in 
the  branches  of  a  neighboring  live-oak  tree.  After  re- 
moving a  layer  of  seed  cotton  that  might  harbor  scorpions 
or  centipedes,  I  spread  my  blanket  near  the  hatch  and  made 
myself  comfortable  for  the  night.  My  feet  still  smarted, 
though  I  had  pulled  off  my  stockings  as  well  as  my  boots ; 
yet  I  could  not  regret  the  hardshi})s  of  a  march  which  had 
brought  us  to  such  an  encampment.  The  portador  was 
taking  his  ease  in  the  centre  of  the  floor,  where  the  night 

15 


230  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

wind  played  with  liis  long  hair,  while  the  Swiss  boy  had 
fallen  asleep  on  the  mantle  of  his  countryman,  who  was 
sitting  in  the  open  louvre,  smoking  his  pipe  in  measureless 
content.  The  air  up  here  was  delightfully  cool,  and  with 
the  buzz  of  the  legions  of  Beelzebub  still  ringing  in  our 
ears  the  sense  of  security  itself  was  more  than  a  negative 
comfort. 

Baron  Savarin,  who  wrote  a  treatise  on  the  art  of  enjoy- 
ing life,  should  have  added  a  chapter  on  the  happiness  of 
contrast.  A  snug  cottage  in  a  stormy  November  night,  a 
shade-tree  on  the  Llano  Estacado,  the  silence  of  the  upper 
Alleghanies  after  a  "  revival-meeting"  in  the  valleys,  a  bath 
in  the  dog-days,  would  rank  above  all  the  luxuries  of  Paris 
and  Stamboul  if  unbought  enjoyments  could  ever  become 
fashionable. 

The  moon  set  soon  after  midnight,  but  we  managed  to 
readjust  our  luggage  by  the  light  of  greased  paper-spills, 
and  entered  the  gates  of  the  foot-hills  before  the  watch -call 
of  the  niglithawk  had  been  silenced  by  the  reveille  of  the 
iris-crows.  A  keen  land-breeze,  tumbling  the  mists  through 
the  fens  of  the  Tierra  Caliente,  gave  promise  of  a  bright 
day.  What  wonderful  perfumes  the  morning  wind  brews 
from  the  atmosphere  of  a  moist  tropical  forest-land! — 
scents  that  haunt  the  memory  more  persistently  than  the 
echo  of  a  weird  song.  No  latter-day  nose  could  analyze 
these  odors  and  trace  them  to  their  several  sources ;  but, 
with  or  without  an  attempt  at  further  classification,  they 
might  be  primarily  divided  into  sweet,  and  pungent  aro- 
matic smells,  the  latter  prevailing  in  the  coast-jungles,  the 
former  in  the  mountain-forests.  A  few  of  the  first  named, 
the  spicy  scents,  are  so  peculiar  that,  once  identified,  they 
can  be  easily  recognized :  here,  for  instance,  the  effluvium 
of  the  musk  lianas,  whose  flowers  diffuse  a  sort  of  odorous 


I 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA.  231 

diapason,  wliich  predominates  even  througli  the  bouquet- 
medley  of  the  South  Mexican  flora. 

As  the  white  streaks  in  the  east  assumed  a  yellowish 
tint,  the  paroquets  in  the  crests  of  the  piiio  palms  saluted 
the  morning  with  sudden  screams;  the  multitudinous 
voices  of  a  crow-swarm  approached  from  the  coast-forests ; 
^two  and  two,  and  in  a  series  of  pairs,  the  macaws  came 
flying  across  the  sky ;  and  in  our  near  neighborhood  the 
startling  cry  of  the  chachalaca,  or  jungle-pheasant,  went 
up  from  an  hibiscus-thicket.  Softly  first,  then  louder  and 
louder,  the  calanda,  the  mocking-bird  of  the  tropics,  in- 
tonated its  morning  hymn,  and  the  fluting  curlew  rose  from 
the  grass  like  a  skylark ;  but  a  sweeter  sound  to  our  ears 
was  the  murmuring  of  a  little  brook  at  the  roadside :  we 
had  reached  the  region  of  rocks  and  swift-flowing  waters. 

Of  reptiles,  as  of  Red  Republicans,  it  may  be  said  that 
they  are  least  dreaded  in  the  countries  where  they  most 
abound.  While  a  New  England  boarding-school  virgin 
goes  into  epileptic  spasms  at  the  aspect  of  a  blindworm,  the 
young  Mexicanas  surround  themselves  with  a  variety  of 
ophidian  pets,  and  view  a  freckled  tree-snake  and  a  gay 
butterfly  with  equal  pleasure  or  equal  unconcern.  A  little 
barefoot  girl  that  met  us  on  her  way  to  the  spring,  put  her 
toes  caressingly  on  the  smooth  hide  of  a  green-and- white 
speckled  vivor^a  mansa  that  wriggled  across  the  road  ;  and 
our  barelegged  portador  kicked  dozens  of  good -si  zed  bush- 
snakes  out  of  our  path  after  noticing  that  they  frightened 
our  young  travelling  companion.  More  than  ninety  per 
cent,  of  all  South  American  snakes  are  as  harmless  as 
lizards,  and  the  four  or  five  venomous  varieties  are  well 
known  and  easily  avoided. 

I  will  here  add  a  word  on  the  dreaded  venomous  insects 
of  the  tropics.     The  ant  and  mosquito  plagues  of  the  coast- 


232 


SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


JUNGLES    or    THE    RIO    VERDE. 


jungles  can  hardly  be  overestimated,  but  the  virulence  of 
their  larger  congeners  is  frequently  and  grossly  exaggerated. 
The  chief  insect-ogres  of  sensation  romancers  and  fireside 
travellers  are  three:  the  scorj^ion,  the  tarantula,  and  the 
centipede,  either  of  whom  can  rival  the  homicidal  prestige 
of  Victor  Hugo's  octopus.  But  I  m.ay  confidently  appeal 
to  the  verdict  of  any  personal  observer  who  has  passed  a 
few  years  in  the  African  or  American  tropics  when  I  assert 
that  these  supposed  express-messengers  of  Death  are  not 
more  venomous,  and  are  far  less  aggressive,  than  our  com- 
mon  North   American  hornet.      I  doubt  if  the   sting  of 


THE    VALLEY  OF  O  AX  AC  A.  233 

twenty  tarantulas  could  cause  the  death  of  a  healthy 
child,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  a  poison-ivy  blister  and 
the  bite  of  a  fire-ant  are  more  painful  than  the  sting-  of  a 
centipede.  An  hysterical  lady  may  succumb  to  the  bite  of 
a  common  gadfly,  but  I  hold  that  only  co-operative  insects 
— termites,  wasps,  bumblebees,  etc. — could  ever  make  aAvay 
with  a  normally-constituted  human  being. 

A  swarm  of  vociferous  iris-crows  appeared  in  the  sky 
overhead,  and  before  they  had  passed  the  woods  were  wide 
awake  all  around.  The  humming-birds  were  on  the  wing, 
the  wood-pigeons  repeated  their  murmuring  call  in  the 
taxus-groves,  and  from  the  lower  depths  of  the  foi-est  came 
the  chattering  scream  of  a  squirrel-monkey.  The  rising 
sun  was  hidden  by  the  tree-to])s  of  the  eastern  valleys  when 
we  halted  on  the  summit  of  a  rocky  blufP,  but  the  mountain- 
mists  had  disappeared,  and  the  vistas  on  our  left  afforded  a 
dazzling  view  of  the  sun-lit  foot-hills  and  the  valley  of  the 
Rio  Verde.  The  river  is  here  crossed  by  a  rope-ferry  a 
little  above  its  junction  with  a  tributary  that  drains  the 
glorious  valley  of  Morillo  and  an  Alpine  group  whose 
wooded  heights  stand  in  my  memory  like  a  vision  of  Gana- 
desha,  the  mountain-park  of  Indra's  Paradise. 

The  air  of  these  woodlands  is  the  antithesis  of  our 
Northern  workshop  atmosphere.  There  is  a  feeling  of  de- 
light— our  lost  sixth  sense,  I  am  tempted  to  call  it — which 
gratifies  the  lungs  rather  than  the  olfixctory  organ  if  you 
inhale  the  morning  breezes,  oxidated,  and  perhaps  ozonized, 
by  the  first  influence  of  sunlight  on  the  aromatic  vegetation 
of  these  hills — a  delight  which,  like  the  charm  of  harmo- 
nious sounds,  reacts  on  the  soul,  and  awakens  emotions 
which  have  lain  dormant  in  the  human  breast  since  we 
exchanged  the  air  of  our  Summerland  home  for  the  dust 
of  our  hyperborean  tenement-prisons. 


234  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

The  hum  of  insects  soon  mingled  with  the  bird-voices  of 
our  forest.  To  and  fro,  in  fitful  flight,  flashed  the  libellas, 
the  glitter-winged  dragon-flies,  and  a  few  large  papilios 
flopped  lazily  through  the  dew-drenched  foliage.  No  gnats 
up  here,  but  thousands  of  tiny,  honey-seeking  wasps  and 
midges,  and  bright-winged  grasshoppers  that  rose  with  a 
fluttering  spring  when  the  first  sunbeams  reached  the  damp 
underbrush.  Ants  hurried  about  their  daily  toil,  and  when 
we  ascended  the  next  ridge  we  saw  various  kinds  of  lizards 
flitting  across  the  road  or  basking  on  the  wayside  rocks, 
one  of  them  a  sort  of  dwarf  iguana,  of  a  moss-green  tint, 
on  which  protective  color  it  seemed  to  rely  for  its  safety,  as 
its  movements  were  as  sluggish  as  those  of  a  toad. 

As  we  kept  steadily  ujshill,  the  sun  seemed  to  mount 
very  rapidly,  and,  peak  after  peak,  the  summits  of  the 
upper  sierra  rose  into  view.  Zempantepec,  La  Sirena,  and 
the  Nevado  de  Colcoyan  towered  above  the  rest,  the  latter 
at  least  four  thousand  feet  above  the  snow-line.  Few^  pros- 
pects on  earth  could  efface  the  impression  of  that  panorama. 
In  the  Sierra  de  San  Miguel  our  continent  reproduces  the 
Syrian  Lebanon  on  a  grander  scale,  Septimus  Severus, 
who  vacillated  between  his  throne  and  the  Elysian  valleys 
of  Daphne,  would  have  renounced  the  empire  of  the  world 
for  the  mountain-gardens  of  the  Val  de  Morillo,  and  the 
giants  of  the  cypress  forests  on  the  southeastern  slope  of 
the  sierra  dwarf  all  tlie  cedars  of  Bashan  and  Hebron. 
The  largest,  though  not  the  tallest,  of  these  trees,  the  cy- 
press of  Maria  del  Tule  (twelve  miles  south  of  San  Miguel), 
which  Humboldt  calls  the  "  oldest  vegetable  monument  of 
our  globe,"  has  a  diameter  of  forty-two  feet,*  a  circum- 

*  The  celebrated  "cypress  of  Montezuma,"  near  the  Mexican 
capital,  measures  only  thirty-eight  feet  in  circumference. — Vide 
Humboldt's  "Views  of  Nature,"  p.  289,  n.  12. 


THE    VALLEY  OF   OAXACA.  235 

ference  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  feet  near  the  ground 
and   of  one   hundred   and   four  six   feet   higlier  up,  and 


CYPRESS   OF   MARIA   DEL   TULE. 


measures  two  hundred  and  eighty-two  feet  between  the  ex- 
tremities of  two  opposite  branches.  Yet  this  tree  has  many 
rivals  in  the  Val  de  Morillo  and  near  the  sources  of  the 
Rio  Verde,  wliere  groups  of  grayish-green  mountain-firs 
rise  like  hillocks  above  the  surrounding  vegetation. 

On  our  right  extended  the  orange-gardens  of  Casa 
Blanca  for  two  miles  along  the  biLse  of  the  hill  to  a  deep 
ravine,  reappearing  on  the  other  side,  where  their  white- 
blooming  tree-tops  mingled  with  the  copses  of  a  banana- 
plantation.  Farther  up,  euphorbias  and  hibiscus  j)revailed, 
and  the  upper  limit  of  the  foot-hills  is  marked  by  the  paler 
green  of  the  cork-oak  forests  that  cover  the  slopes  of  the 
sierra  proper.  In  the  northeast  this  sierra  becomes  linked 
with  the  ramifications  of  the  central  Cordilleras,  and  con- 
nected with  our  ridge  by  one  of  the  densely-wooded  spurs 
that  flank  the  plateau  of  the  Llanos  Ventosos.     The  rocks 


236  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

at  our  feet  belonged  therefore  to  a  mountain-chain  that 
might  be  called  a  lineal  continuation  of  the  Gila  range  in 
Arizona  and  Nueva  Leon.  But  what  a  difference  in  the 
climate  and  scenery  !  There,  arid  rocks  and  thorny  ravines; 
here,  dense  mountain-forests,  deep  rivers,  a  saturated  atmos- 
phere, and  springs  on  almost  every  acre  of  ground.  The 
very  brambles  in  the  rock-clefts  were  fresh  with  dew,  and 
the  sprouts  of  the  broomfurze  looked  like  wildering  aspar- 
agus. The  ravines  flamed  with  flowers  of  every  size  and 
every  hue.  An  agent  of  a  London  or  Hamburg  curiosity- 
dealer  might  make  his  living  here  with  a  common  butterfly- 
net.  On  any  sunny  forenoon  an  active  boy  could  gather  a 
stock  of  Lepidoptera  that  would  create  a  bonanza  sensation 
among  the  collectors  of  a  North  European  capital:  the 
rhododendron  thickets  of  the  upper  Rio  Verde  are  fre- 
quented by  gigantic  varieties  of  Nymphalis,  Vanessa,  and 
Pamassms.  which  would  retail  in  Brussels  at  from  two  to 
ten  dollars  apiece. 

The  sun  rose  higher,  but  not  the  thermometer,  and  when 
we  clambered  up  through  an  orchard  of  scattered  cherry- 
trees  I  am  sure  that  the  maximum  temperature  in  the  shade 
did  not  exceed  sixty-five  degrees  Fahrenheit.  We  had 
reached  the  Llanos  Ventosos,  the  air-plains  of  San  Miguel, 
the  playground  of  the  four  winds  of  heaven,  where  sun- 
strokes are  unknown,  though  the  mists  of  the  rainy  season 
never  cloud  their  deep-blue  sky.  Down  in  the  coast-jungles 
the  Rain-fiend  was  at  it  again :  dark-gray  showers  swept 
visibly  along  the  shore,  while  the  foot-hills  simmered  under 
the  rays  of  a  vertical  sun.  But  up  here  the  air  was  dry  as 
well  as  cool :  the  edge  of  the  plateau  is  at  least  six  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  Pacific,  which  is  in  plain  view 
from  Punta  Piedra  to  the  downs  of  Tehuantepec. 

We  entered  the  village  about  two  p.m.,  and  my  compan- 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA.  237 

ions  coiulucted  jne  to  a  little  frame  house,  where  I  was 
hospitably  received  by  the  Indian  gardener  and  the  daugh- 
ters of  Pastor  Wenck,  the  minister  of  the  Protestant  part 
of  the  community,  M'hose  brother  in  Tehuantepec  had  en- 
trusted me  with  different  letters,  with  a  note  of  introduction. 
The  pastor  had  harnessed  his  mule  an  hour  ago  to  get  a 
load  of  Spanish  moss  from  the  foot-hills;  so  I  left  my 
carrier  in  charge  of  the  Indian  gardener  and  sauntered  out 
into  the  village, 

Neubern  (New  Bern)  de  San  Miguel — or  Villa  Cresciente, 
as  it  was  originally  called  from  its  situation  on  a  crescent- 
shaped  bluff — was  founded  in  1865  under  the  happiest 
auspices,  the  charter  of  the  colony  including  such  induce- 
ments as  exemption  from  taxes  for  the  first  five  years,  free 
roads  and  schools,  gratuitous  seed-corn,  farming  implements, 
etc.,  to  indigent  immigrants,  and  attracted  a  considerable 
number  of  the  very  best  agriculturists  from  Tyrol  and 
Southern  Switzerland.  But  after  the  collapse  of  the  impe- 
rial government  a  waning  moon  would  have  been  the  fitter 
emblem  of  the  Crescent  Village:  its  privileges  were  abro- 
gated, and  many  of  the  disappointed  Bauern  returned  to 
their  native  countries.  Still,  the  appointment  of  a  few 
half-Indian  officials  is  the  only  positive  grievance  of  the 
colonists,  and  the  advantages  of  their  climate  and  situation 
might  well  reconcile  them  to  greater  inconveniences. 

At  a  distance  of  only  sixteen  degrees  from  the  equator, 
the  average  temperature  of  the  coldest  and  warmest  months 
differs  less  than  spring  and  summer  in  the  United  States,  so 
that  the  September  weather  of  Geneva  or  Innspruck  is  here 
as  perennial  as  a  sea-fog  in  Newfoundland.  During  a  res- 
idence of  seven  years  Pastor  Wenck  has  chroniciled  four 
thunderstorms,  twenty-two  common  storms,  two  hoar-frosts 
(both  in  November),  one  sultry  day,  and  two  hundred  and 


238  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

eight  short  showers,  leaving  a  balance  of  two  thousand  two 
hundred  and  ninety-two  days  of  himmelsivetter — heaven- 
weather — as  he  called  it,  alternating  with  cool  nights  whose 
dew  indemnifies  the  fields  for  the  scantiness  of  the  annual 
rainfall.  Yet  the  denizens  of  this  Himmel-land  come  in 
for  a  first-hand  share  of  all  the  luxuries  which  a  compen- 
sating Xature  has  lavished  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  swel- 
tering Tierra  Caliente, 

Forty  or  fifty  varieties  of  tropical  fruits  come  to  their 
tables  in  a  freshness  and  sun-ripened  sweetness  quite  un- 
known to  our  Northern  markets ;  their  builders  may  select 
their  material  from  groves  of  mahogany,  iron-wood,  Amer- 
ican ebony,  greenheart,  euphorbia,  and  other  timber  trees 
of  the  coast-swamps;  cacao,  vanilla,  gums,  and  frankincense 
can  be  bought  at  half  trade-prices,  and  an  excursion  of  ten 
miles  will  take  them  to  a  region  where  the  pot-hunter  can 
fill  his  bag  day  after  day  without  fear  of  ever  exhausting 
the  meat-supply,  where  the  adventurous  sportsman  may 
try  his  luck  and  the  mettle  of  his  dogs,  and  w-here  the 
naturalist  can  revel  in  all  the  wonders  of  a  tropical  terra 
incognita. 

At  six  P.M.  Pastor  Wenck  returned  with  a  cargo  of 
Spanish  moss  for  mattresses  and  other  domestic  purposes,  a 
bundle  of  broom-brush,  and  the  following  little  extras :  a 
rabbit,  a  six-pound  cluster  of  yellow  grapes,  a  handkerchief 
full  of  rare  orchids,  a  rhinoceros-beetle,  a  lot  of  wild  yams, 
and  two  swamp-turtles.  He  could  have  shot  a  hatch  of 
nest-pheasants,  he  said,  if  he  had  not  been  short  of  ammu- 
nition, for  down  in  the  foot-hills  his  dogs  treed  a  young 
puma,  and  he  exhausted  his  shot-pouch  in  a  vain  attempt 
to  dislodge  the  little  dodger.  Venison  was  a  drug  in  this 
market,  he  told  me :  his  Indian  neighbors  frequently  offered 
a  fat  cimaron  (bighorn  sheep),  an  agouti-antelope,  or  a  brace 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA. 


239 


of  turkeys  for  the  privilege  of  using  his  carpenter  tools  or 
hand-mill  for  a  few  minutes.  Irish  potatoes  need  a  good 
deal  of  hoeing  and  artificial  irrigation,  and  fetch  four  reals 
(forty-eight  cents)  ])er  bushel,  but  most  other  vegetables  are 
as  cheap  as  whortleberries  in  a  Georgia  swamp.  As  all 
foreign  residents  agreed  that  pulmonary  complaints  are  not 
only  rare,  but  quite  unknown,  on  the  Llanos  Ventosos,  the 
following  price-list  may  interest  Northern  invalids  who 
would  like  to  try  the  Sierra  de  San  Miguel  for  a  winter  or 
two: 


Rent,  per  month,  of  an  unfurnished  rottage 

at  Neubern  .... 
Indian  boy  of  all  work,  per  day 
Saddle-horse,  " 

Guide,  " 

Milk,  per  quart   .... 
Eggs,  per  score    .... 
Pigeon-eggs,  per  score 
Butter,  per  pound 
Flour  (wheat),  per  bushel  . 
Flour  (maize)      .... 
Olive  oil,  per  quart 
Calmet-seed  oil,  per  quart  . 
Mutton,  per  pound 
Eabbits,  per  half  score 
Pigeons,      "         "       . 
Turkeys,  apiece   .... 
Pheasants,  "        . 
Brown  beans,  per  bushel 
Lentils,  "  .         . 

Sweet  potatoes,    "  .         . 

Brown  sugar,  per  pound 
Mangos  (large  plums),  per  bushel 
Grapes,  best  quality,  " 

Oranges,  " 

Bananas,  best,  " 

Honey,  per  pound 


10  reals      =  $1.20 

3  medios  =  18  cents 

2  reals      =  24 

4      "         =48 

1  medio    =    6 

1  real        =  12 

1  medio    =    6 

3  medios  =  18 

4  reals      =  48 

1  real        =  12 

3  medios  =  18 

1  medio    :=    6 

1      "        =6 

4  reals      =  48 

8      "         =  36 

3  medios  =:  18 

1  real       =  12 

3  medios  -=  18 

5  reals      =  60 

3  medios  ;=  18 

1  medio    =    6 

5  medios  =:  30 

5       "       =30 

3  reals      =  36 

3  medios  =  18 

1  medio    =    6 

240  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

The  Valley  of  Oaxaca  abounds  in  game;  red  deer,  elk, 
otters,  turkeys,  and  pheasants  can  always  be  met  in  their 
favorite  haunts ;  panthers,  pumas,  and  three  varieties  of 
bears  frequent  the  jungles;  and  perfectly  wild  black  cattle, 
shyer  than  deer,  are  occasionally  seen  in  the  forests  of  the 
foot-hills.  Still-hunting  and  emhoscados — lying  in  ambush 
near  the  springs  and  salt-licks — are  the  favorite  methods; 
the  great  difficulty  with  hounds,  besides  the  thickness  of 
the  jungles,  being  the  abundance  o^  vermin,  as  an  Arkansas 
hunter  would  say — of  small  quadrupeds  whose  scent  con- 
fuses all  but  the  veteran  finders.  Mr.  Wenck  had  a  couple 
of  acclimatized  deerhounds  that  would  track  a  panther  even 
through  the  thickets  of  the  Tierra  Caliente  and  follow  a 
deer  for  days ;  but  the  scent  of  a  capuchin-monkey  never 
fails  to  throw  them  out :  the  peculiar  rank  odor  of  a  gato 
pardo,  or  palm-cat,  seems  also  to  have  an  irresistible  attrac- 
tion for  canine  nostrils. 

A  species  of  stout  chickenhawk  is  trained  by  the  Oaxaca 
Indians  as  falcons,  and  the  hamlet  of  Villarica,  near  Ama- 
tlan,  is  famous  for  its  bird-fanciers,  among  whom  the 
"gentil  craft  of  gerfalconry"  has  been  handed  down,  with 
all  its  mysteries  and  by-laws,  perhaps  from  the  retainers  of 
one  of  the  Spanish  robber-knights  who  infested  these 
mountains  in  the  sixteenth  century.  They  train  them  to 
catch  pheasants  and  woodcocks,  and  even  gazapos,  or  mule- 
ear  rabbits,  on  the  upper  table- lands ;  and  Mr.  Wenck  told 
me  about  a  half-breed  falconer  of  the  neighboring  village 
of  Las  Tunas  who,  with  the  aid  of  two  co-operating  hawks, 
once  filled  an  order  for  a  dozen  parrots  in  a  single  forenoon. 
His  birds  captured  nine  macaws  and  twenty-two  paroquets, 
nineteen  of  them  "  rough-caught" — i.e.  torn  into  pieces — 
but  of  the  rest  seven  were  apparently  uninjured,  and  five 
at  least  in  a  salable  condition. 


THE    VALLEY   OF  OAXACA.  241 


INDIAN    FALCONER. 


I  was  obliged  to  decline  the  invitation  of  an  American 
speculator  who  had  purchased  a  promising  silver-mine  in 
the  upper  sierra,  and  wanted  to  show  me  his  new  hydraulic 
rock-blaster ;  but  Mr.  Wcnck  insisted  that  I  must  stiiy  till 
the  next  evening  and  see  the  festival  of  Santa  Lucia  at  the 
neighboring  Dominican  convent  of  Las  Tunas. 

The  following  morning  my  Swiss  travelling-companion 
from  Tehuantepec  lent  me  his  saddle-horse,  and  the  pastor 
managed  to  pack  his  family  of  six  children,  together  with 
sundry  baskets  and  boxes,  into  a  two-wheeled  cart  padded 
and  cushioned  with  hay ;  and,  leaving  the  house  in  charge 
of  the  Indian  gardener,  we  proceeded  in  a  northeasterly 
direction  on  a  tolerably  good  country  road.  After  the  vil- 
lage there  was  a  long,  gradual  ascent  of  about  a  league, 
with  the  deep  valley  of  the  Rio  Verde  constantly  in  view 
on  our  left,  while  the  rising  hills  on  our  right  were  covered 
with  woods  and  orchards.  Wherever  we  passed  a  clearing 
we  got  a  glimpse  of  the  snow-capped  sierras  in  the  north- 
east, and  now  and  then  of  a  glittering  double  peak  a  little 
farther  south,  somewhere  in  the  central  sierras  of  Guatc- 


242  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

mala.  After  an  hour  or  two  of  slow  riding  and  lively 
talk,  Mr.  Weuck  drew  up  on  a  level  plateau  where  the 
road  turned  sharply  to  the  left  and  downhill. 

"  If  ray  eldest  son  shows  any  turn  for  business,"  said  he, 
"  I  shall  buy  him  this  land  and  a  silk-culture  outfit. 
There  are  whole  forests  of  wild-growing  mulberry-trees  in 
the  valleys  all  around,  and  with  the  summer  climate  of 
Southern  France  it  would  be  strange  if  we  could  not  raise 
all  the  silkworms  we  want.  Labor  is  cheaper  here  than 
in  Languedoc,  where  food  and  winter-houses  are  a  heavy 
additional  expense.  In  New  Orleans  raw  silk  brings  fiive 
dollars  a  pound :  here  I  do  not  think  that  the  producer's 
expenses,  including  transportation  to  Vera  Cruz,  would 
amount  to  fifty  cents.  I  have  a  mind  to  try  it  myself  if  I 
should  ever  resign  my  charge." 

"  So  you  have  not  lost  faith  in  the  prospects  of  the 
colony  ?"  I  asked. 

"  No,  but  I  should  stay  for  better  or  worse,"  said  he. 
"  My  relations  in  Lucerne  want  me  to  come  home,  but  I 
know  that  even  in  the  valley  of  the  Engadine  I  should  be 
haunted  by  a  homesickness  after  this  Switzerland  of  the 
tropics." 

We  stopped  for  dinner  at  Las  Cascadas,  the  country-seat 
of  Captain  Remely,  a  Tehuantepec  merchant  of  German 
descent.  The  house,  built  in  1810  by  the  Spanish  governor 
of  Oaxaca,  is  charmingly  situated  near  the  lower  falls  of 
the  Rio  Verde,  and  the  present  proprietor  has  turned  a 
portion  of  the  old  orchard  into  a  botanical  garden,  with  a 
little  Zoo,  whose  inhabitants,  with  few  exceptions,  run  at 
large  like  domesticated  animals. 

The  irregular  groups  of  tropical  trees  and  flower-bushes 
gave  the  garden  a  park-like  appearance.  There  were  huge 
old  taxus-trees,  whose  hollow  branches  were  garrisoned  by 


THE    VALLEV  OF  OAXACA.  243 

swarms  of  paroquet.s :  orange-groves,  where  sloths  an<l 
squirrel-monkeys  could  get  free  luncheon  at  all  hours  of 
the  day  ;  and  a  great  variety  of  palms,  many  of  which  my 
Swiss  cicerone  could  only  distinguish  under  their  Spanish 
names.  The  trunks  of  different  tall  cocoa  nut-trees  were 
almost  overloaded  with  a  tangle  of  luxuriant  grajievines, 
that  hung  like  a  mantle  from  a  height  of  sixty  feet  to  the 
ground ;  and  it  struck  me  that  viticulture  would  be  as 
profitable  as  the  silk  business  in  this  valley. 

"  It  has  never  been  tried,"  said  Mr.  Wenck.  "  The 
natives  get  all  the  fresh  grapes  they  want  out  in  the  woods, 
and  only  few  of  them  are  enterprising  enough  to  sell  tiiem 
in  the  form  of  raisins.  They  do  not  care  much  for  grapes, 
anyhow." 

"Don't  they  drink  any  wine?" 

"  Not  often :  they  have  other  tipples.  There  is  a  dis- 
gusting kind  of  poison-herb  growing  in  the  swamps, — 
cicuta  they  call  it,  a  sort  of  water-hemlock, — and  a  simple 
decoction  of  a  handful  of  the  fresh  leaves  is  enough  to  in- 
toxicate the  toughest  toper.  If  you  try  it  for  the  first  time, 
a  spoonful  is  enough  to  make  you  seasick,  and  a  glassful 
might  kill  you ;  but  they,  somehow,  get  used  to  it,  and 
prefer  it  to  rum  and  pulque.  I  have  often  thought  that 
any  poison  may  become  a  '  second  nature'  and  a  *  tonic ;' 
and  if  a  man  must  needs  stimulate  himself,  he  might  as 
well  get  his  tipple  in  the  next  poison-swamp,  instead  of 
buying  it  across  the  counter." 

At  least  an  inexpensive  way  of  going  to  pot ;  but,  like 
opium,  cicuta  seems  to  have  the  further  advantage  of  in- 
ducing a  peaceful  kind  of  delirium,  while  hashish  and 
alcohol  aifect  the  temper  as  well  as  the  senses. 

The  zoological  department  of  the  park  comprised  nearly 
all  the  felines  and  quadrumana  of  Southern  Mexico,  be- 


244  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

sides  birds  and  a  variety  of  reptiles  and  curious  rodents. 
If  Mr.  Rcniely's  captives  objected  to  their  treatment,  they 
showed  a  strange  want  of  enterprise,  for  the  ring-fence  that 
enclosed  the  park  was  low  and  full  of  loopholes ;  but  I  sus- 
pect that  a  congenial  climate  and  a  liberal  food-supply 
would  reconcile  most  wild  animals  to  a  smaller  and  less 
agreeable  prison  than  a  forty-acre  lot  of  woods  and  orchards. 


DON    carl's   pets 


They  seemed,  indeed,  to  have  made  themselves  at  home, 
agile  squirrels,  as  well  as  sluggish  water-hogs  and  defence- 
less monkeys,  not  less  than  the  larger  carnivora.  A  coyote 
bitch  suckled  her  litter  of  black-muzzled  puppies  under  a 
bush  close  to  the  main  gravel-path,  and  the  capuchin- 
monkeys  had  multiplied  till  many  of  the  young  ones  had 
to  be  drowned  like  supernumerary  kittens.  Mr.  Remely's 
eldest  son,  a  poor  cripple  of  nineteen  or  twenty  years,  was 


THE    VALLEY   OF  OAXACA.  245 

at  present  the  only  Caucasian  inhabitant  of  the  casa,  and 
could  not  enter  the  park  in  daylight  without  beconiing  the 
centre  of  an  excited  group  of  four-handers  and  reptiles. 
Tiiey  wound  around  his  crutch,  clung  to  his  legs,  and 
often  impeded  his  progress  so  effectually  that  he  had  to 
surrender  at  discretion,  and  wait  on  the  next  garden-bench 
till  the  monos  chicos  had  filched  the  last  nut  from  his 
pockets  and  the  bear  had  satisfied  himself  that  there  would 
be  no  meat  for  supper  this  evening.  A  young  boa  wound 
around  his  waist  when  he  showed  me  the  she-bear's  den, 
and  seemed  to  enjoy  the  warmth  of  his  under-garments 
like  a  nest-squirrel.  But  an  old  armadillo  on  a  bundle  of 
reeds  in  the  corner  rolled  himself  up  at  our  approach,  and 
contracted  his  body  with  the  tenacity  of  a  hedgehog. 

'^  We  have  had  this  chap  more  than  four  years,"  said 
Don  Carl,  "  but  I  do  not  know  if  you  will  believe  me  if  I 
tell  you  that  nobody  ever  saw  him  eat  yet.  The  carrots 
we  leave  near  his  coucii  disappear  and  his  excrements  ac- 
cumulate periodically,  so  we  know  that  he  does  eat;  but, 
like  a  grand  Brahman,  he  conceals  the  act  from  all  mortal 
eyes.  I  believe  he  would  starve  to  death  if  you  would  sit 
up  with  a  lantern  and  watch  him." 

Besides  the  capuchin-  and  squirrel-monkeys  and  a  few 
good-sized  sapajous  [Ateles  paniscus),  they  had  a  large 
coaita,  or  spider-monkey,  from  Guatemala,  who  seemed  to 
prefer  the  society  of  man  to  that  of  his  hairier  Darwinian 
brethren.  He  approached  us  like  a  mendicant  with  out- 
stretched j)aw:  the  gardener,  Don  Carl  told  me,  had  taught 
him  to  shake  hands,  and  his  notions  of  the  efficacy  of  that 
function  were  somewhat  transcendental.  Being;  a  native  of 
the  lower  tropics,  he  was  rather  sensitive  to  cold,  and  on 
rainy  winter  mornings  used  to  crouch  under  the  gateway 
and  shake  hands  with  all  visitors,  as  if  to  solicit  their  in- 

10 


246  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

terference  in  the  obnoxious  meteorological  proceedings. 
On  the  roof  of  a  tool-shed  we  found  a  good-natured  little 
sloth,  wiio  permitted  me  to  tickle  his  neck  and  turned  over 
on  his  back  like  a  playful  pupi)y,  parrying  my  fingers  with 
his  long  claw^.  A  sloth  is  indeed  rather  awkward  than 
sluggish :  the  peculiar  formation  of  his  limbs  makes  him 
almost  helpless  on  level  ground,  but  on  his  native  trees  he 
is  active  enough  for  all  practical  purposes,  and  an  old  cin- 
namon bear  is  a  much  fitter  emblem  of  laziness.  The  one 
in  Mr.  Remely's  park  used  to  squat  at  the  foot  of  a  shady 
copper  beech,  embrace  the  trunk  with  his  fore  paws,  and, 
pressing  his  forehead  against  a  projecting  root,  remain  im- 
movable for  hours  together,  brooding  over  dreamy  me- 
mentos of  the  Tierra  Fria,  whose  temperature  enabled  him 
to  prolong  such  blissful  torpors  for  weeks  and  months. 

Don  Carl's  gardener  introduced  me  to  an  interesting  little 
pet,  a  gray  lynx,  with  restless  yellow  eyes  and  an  evident 
})enchant  for  practical  jokes.  They  kept  him  in  the  open 
tool-shed,  and  as  we  entered  he  turned  his  head  with  a 
sudden  interest  in  the  construction  of  a  patent  lawn-mower 
behind  his  couch.  But  as  I  approached,  his  right  paw 
stole  out  from  under  the  hay,  he  humped  his  back  and  with 
an  abrujjt  spring  alighted  on  ray  breast  and  had  his  paws 
around  my  neck  in  a  minute.  The  guffaw  of  the  old  Prus- 
sian guaranteed  the  peaceful  intentions  of  my  interviewer, 
who  cocked  his  head,  and,  with  his  left  ear  touching  my 
chin,  eyed  me  in  a  serio-comical  way  that  almost  upset  me 
with  laughing  before  I  could  get  rid  of  him. 

"  I  wonder  how  you  can  keep  this  little  bouncer  away 
from  your  chickens  and  things,"  said  I  when  I  recovered 
my  breath,  "  if  you  leave  his  door  open  ?" 

"  God  have  mercy  upon  any  of  them  if  tiiey  touch  my 
chickens!"  said  the  Prussian.     "No,  sir:  I'm  pretty  safe 


THE    VALLEY   OF  OAXACA.  247 

as  far  as  that's  concerned :  they  know  I  would  .skin  them 
alive.  We  had  a  young  pointer  pup  that  got  into  the 
garden  once  in  a  while,  and  used  to  worry  the  pheasants, 
but  1  cured  him  in  just  twenty-four  hours." 

"  AVhat  did  you  do  to  him  ?" 

"  Well,  sir,  I  caught  him  on  top  of  a  lame  old  cock- 
pheasant  that  I  meant  to  kill  anyhow  ;  so,  instead  of  whij)- 
ping  the  dog,  I  opened  his  jaws  and  crammed  the  cock  in 
as  far  as  I  could,  and  then  tied  a  twelve-yard  wash-line 
around  his  muzzle,  bird  and  all.  W^ith  the  rope  I  had 
left  I  tied  his  four  legs  into  a  bunch  and  threw  him  out  in 
the  hot  sun.  Chawing  the  bird  only  made  mattei'S  worse 
for  him,  for  he  bit  through  into  its  bowels,  and  with  that 
mess  in  his  mouth  he  had  to  lie  in  the  broiling  sun  for  full 
eight  hours,  all  night  and  four  hours  the  next  morning,  till 
I  released  him  a  little  before  noon.  I  do  not  think  he  will 
forget  the  day  of  the  month.  The  mere  sight  of  a  pheasant 
sets  him  galloping  as  if  the  devil  were  at  his  heels.  I  once 
caught  old  Mr.  Cinnamon  nosing  around  a  pen  where  we 
kept  a  litter  of  young  water-hogs,  but  I  cured  him  by 
sticking  a  pitchfork  into  his  ribs  whenever  he  came  within 
ten  yards  of  that  pen." 

"  No  wonder  you  can  '  cure'  them,  if  you  have  a  list  of 
such  remedies." 

"  Yes,  sir,  you  can  break  the  most  obstinate  brutes  of 
almost  anything  if  you  just  show  them  that  you  are  in 
downright  earnest.  I  wasn't  here  two  weeks  before  they 
found  out  who  was  ringmaster  of  this  circus.  I  can  break 
them  of  all  their  bad  habits — with  one  single  exception,  so 
far  as  I  know:  no  human  power  or  ingenuity  can  cure 
a  capuchin-monkey  of  squealing  if  you  take  hold  of  him. 
I  tried  it,  and  gave  it  up  after  killing  about  fifteen  of 
them." 


248  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"You  did?  They  had  reasons  for  squealing,  then,  I 
should  say." 

"  Yes,  but  I  tried  them  with  fair  means  too — coaxed 
them,  fondled  them,  let  them  starve  and  came  up  with  my 
hands  full  of  tidbits, — all  no  use :  they  licked  their  chops, 
but  the  moment  I  touched  their  starved  carcasses  the 
squealing  began.  I  grabbed  some  of  them  and  choked 
them  till  their  eyes  and  tongues  started  out  of  their  heads, 
but  the  minute  they  got  w^ind  enough  they  used  it  for 
squealing  instead  of  breathing.  There  was  no  doubt  of  it 
that  they  did  know  what  I  choked  them  for,  but  they  would 
rather  die  than  live  and  not  squeal." 

"  Don't  you  think  an  animal's  bite  is  dangerous  if  you 
torment  it  that  way  ?" 

"  Not  a  monkey's,  sir ;  but  carnivorous  brutes  can  give 
you  a  dose  of  gangrene  with  a  mere  scratch.  I  think  it's 
the  putrid  flesh  and  stuff  sticking  to  their  claws  and  poi- 
soning your  blood  if  they  just  rip  your  skin.  But  mon- 
keys are  subject  to  hydrophobia,  it  seems.  We  had  a  case 
of  that  kind  a  year  ago  with  the  mate  of  our  big  spider- 
monkey.  She  was  the  best-natured  creature  in  the  lot,  but 
one  morning  she  went  tearing  around  the  park  like  a  wild- 
cat. It  was  some  kind  of  a  fit,  we  thought,  but  when  we 
were  at  dinner  in  the  casa  she  rushed  into  the  room  and 
upon  my  little  poodle-dog,  and  bit  him  to  death  in  less 
than  a  minute.  It  struck  us  then  that  she  must  be  mad ; 
and  I  can  tell  you,  sir,  I  wished  that  there  had  been  more 
than  one  door  to  that  room  or  no  wire-screen  at  the  win- 
dows. She  was  crouching  in  the  open  door,  ready  to 
spring,  and  we  had  no  gun  handy,  and  hardly  knew  what 
to  do.  Don  Carl  turned  as  white  as  chalk,  but  didn't  say 
a  word,  and  I  was  satisfied  as  long  as  he  would  not  ask  me 
to  put  that  monkey  out.     We  saw  then  that  Greasers  are 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA 


249 


not  all  cowards.  Our  old  mestizo  vvoodohopper  went  around 
the  table  and  got  a  eider-jug  in  the  opposite  corner,  swung 
it  up  and  walked  towards  the  door  with  his  teetli  set.  The 
monkey  did  not  seem  to  like  his  looks,  and  drew  back  a 
little,  maybe  to  brace  herself  for  a  spring;  but  in  the  next 
second  the  jug  came  down  like  an  axe,  and  we  had  to  own 
our  mistake  if  we  liad  thought  that  hydrophobia  was  in- 
curable. Don  Carl  was  puzzled  for  a  new  set  of  skull- 
bones  when  he  tried  to  stuff  that  monkey." 


LIMESTONE  CAVES  OF  THE 
SIERRA    HONDA. 


-  There  were  four  half- 

grown  panthers  and  five 
very  young  pumas,  who  had  all  been  captured  in  the  rocks 
of  the  Sierra  Honda,  whose  limestone  caves  seem,  indeed, 
to  be  used  as  a  lying-in  establisimient  by  all  the  female 
carnivora  of  the  isthmus  mountains.  The  cavernous  lime- 
stone crops  out  in  a  massive  stratum  at  the  head-waters  of 
the  Tehuantepec  River,  and  follows  the  ridge  of  the  sierra 
for  more  than  twenty  leagues  to  its  junction  with  the  east- 


250  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

eru  Cordilleras.  The  whole  intermediate  mountain-range 
abounds  with  unexplored  caves,  and  must  be  actually  honey- 
combed, if  we  are  to  believe  the  Indian  tradition  of  a  hid- 
den passage  from  Amatlan  to  Villalta,  on  the  eastern  slope, 
by  a  continuous  rock-tunnel,  in  whose  lateral  ramifications 
the  satraps  of  Montezuma  concealed  their  treasures  when 
the  Spaniards  overran  the  province  of  Tehuantepec. 

About  four  P.M.  we  remounted,  and  reached  the  convent 
of  Las  Tunas  an  hour  before  sunset.  At  least  two  hundred 
horses  were  haltered  outside  in  a  row,  and,  seeing  nothing 
but  strange  faces,  Mr.  Wenck  drove  through  the  lodge-gate 
in  the  hope  of  meeting  one  of  his  village  Indians  or  find- 
ing a  place  for  his  mule  in  the  convent  stables.  The  gate- 
posts, the  veranda,  and  many  trees  were  decorated  with  flags 
and  huge  bouquets  in  honor  of  Santa  Lucia,  the  convent's 
patron  saint  and  a  far-famed  adjutor  of  orthodox  invalids. 
The  funcion  was  an  annual  festival,  and  it  was  hoped  that 
the  liberality  of  the  visitors  would  this  time  meet  the  ex- 
penses of  a  new  corona  and  chaplet,  of  which,  as  a  placard 
near  the  contribution-box  informed  us,  the  saint  was  in 
pressing  need.  A  continual  low  tolling  of  the  bells  seemed 
to  ring  out  a  standing  invitation  to  the  faithful,  who,  in- 
deed, had  answered  the  summons  in  numbers  which  must 
have  been  swelled  by  quotas  from  different  adjoining 
counties. 

The  convent  park  was  crowded  with  devotees  and  sight- 
seers ;  the  squaws  of  the  Indian  villages  had  mustered  for 
dress-parade;  and  noisy  swarms  of  children  on  the  grass 
and  in  the  trees  gave  the  funcion  somewhat  of  the  mirth  of 
a  Sunday-school  picnic.  My  padre  Abad  had  squeezed  his 
ample  proportions  into  a  garden-chair  under  a  magnolia- 
tree  that  rose  from  the  centre  of  a  round  table  as  from  a 
flower-pot,  and  the  shade  of  the  lawn,  with  its  hillocks  of 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA.  251 

fresh-raowu  hay  and  sprawling  friars,  seemed  here  so  in- 
viting to  our  mule  that  she  came  to  a  full  stop.  Before 
we  could  set  her  agoing  the  hospitable  Dominicans  had  re- 
moved the  tail-board  of  our  cart,  deposited  our  baskets  and 
buckets  on  the  table  and  our  youngsters  on  the  garden- 
bench.  When  I  rejoined  them  after  a  stroll  through  the 
park  one  of  the  padres  had  buttonholed  Mr.  Wenck  about 
the  loan  of  an  Appenzell  rooster  which  he  wished  to  enter 
at  the  next  Mitla  cocking-main,  while  the  abbot  helped  the 
children  of  the  heretical  parson  to  open  their  lunch-basket 
and  trotted  one  of  the  flaxen-haired  girls  on  his  knee.  He 
complimented  the  pastor  on  the  purity  of  his  Spanish  pro- 
nunciation,— muy  singular  por  un  estranjero,  quite  unique 
in  a  foreigner, — urged  him  to  address  the  assembly,  pre- 
tending to  scout  his  objections,  and  between  his  arguments 
flirted  with  the  young  lady  on  his  knee  till  she  boxed  his 
ears.  But  when  her  little  brother  provoked  a  jeremiad 
from  paterfamilias  by  dropping  the  semi-fluid  contents  of 
the  butter-bowl  on  his  coat,  the  old  celibatist  grinned,  and 
a  sly  twinkle  of  his  roguish  eyes  made  me  fear  that  he 
meditated  a  mischievous  sally.  The  physiognomy  of  his 
nose  betrayed  a  penchant  for  sarcasm,  and  the  opportunity 
to  indulge  it  might  seem  tempting,  if  not  even  recommended 
by  a  sense  of  duty.  But  presently  the  grin  gave  way  to 
a  good-natured  smile :  he  had  concluded  to  forbear — no 
sufficient  inducements  to  spoil  an  evening  like  this. 

They  expected  a  popular  preacher  from  Mitla  this  even- 
ing, but  in  the  mean  while  the  assembly  was  indulged  in  a 
soiree  dansante  and  musical  exercises,  in  which  even  the 
choir-boys  were  permitted  to  join  on  condition  that  the 
dances  must  be  confined  to  rondas — strictly  decorous  roun- 
delays. Near  the  chapel,  now  ablaze  with  flowers  and 
flounces,  the  father  kitchen-master  had  a  little  pavilion, 


252  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

where  he  dispensed  iced  orangeade  and  dulces  at  a  penny  a 
plate,  and  retailed  a  lot  of  splendid  grapes  for  a  mere  song 
— often  in  the  literal  sense,  for  the  choir-boys  repeatedly 
filled  their  hats  without  asking  his  permission. 

Some  of  the  mozos  outside  fired  off  their  musquetoons, 
and  when  the  moonlight  broke  through  the  tree-tops  a  troop 
of  Indians  from  Amatlan  mounted  the  veranda  and  formed 
a  semicircle  to  make  room  for  a  gitana,  a  female  vocalist, 
who  stepped  to  the  front  and  sang  "La  Virgen  del  Pilar" 
in  a  ringing  contralto  and  with  such  electrifying  pathos 
that  almost  at  the  first  notes  the  chatter  was  hushed  all 
around  and  the  monks  rose  and  stared  at  her  in  amazement 
and  admiration.  An  officious  usher  slipped  around  to  ob- 
viate noisy  demonstrations,  but  the  applause  could  not  be 
wholly  suppressed,  and  if  she  had  repeated  the  song  the 
canonized  queen  of  the  festival  might  have  found  a  dan- 
gerous rival. 

A  simple  hacha  azul — a  blue  torchlight  fed  with  alum 
and  odorous  gum — sufficed,  however,  to  attract  a  large  part 
of  the  crowd  to  the  opposite  end  of  the  park,  and  near  the 
lodge-gate  the  young  bucks  thronged  around  a  "  wigwam 
swing,"  a  stout  rope  terminating  about  eight  feet  from  the 
ground  in  a  bunch  of  rings  which  could  only  be  reached  by 
a  lucky  jump ;  but  after  four  or  five  athletes  had  got  a  good 
hand-hold  the  light-weight  champions  clung  to  their  legs, 
and  the  bundle  of  yelling  aeronauts  was  set  agog  by  means 
of  a  drag-rope.  He  who  let  go  first  had  either  to  pay  a 
fine  of  a  penny  or  assist  in  swinging  the  next  batch.  When 
one  of  the  bundles  had  dropped  from  simultaneous  exhaus- 
tion, a  young  Catalan  Hercules,  the  shepherd  of  the  convent 
farm,  caught  the  two  bottom  rings  at  the  first  jump,  and 
offered  a  bet  that  he  would  hold  as  many  men  as  could 
hang  on  to  his  legs  and  arms  directly  or  by  proxy,  with  the 


THE    VALLEY  OF  OAXACA. 


253 


THE    WIGWAM    SWING. 


sole  proviso  that  the  padre  Vicario,  a  monastic  Falstaif, 
should  be  made  to  keep  liis  hands  off. 

The  convent  church  stands  at  the  very  edge  of  the 
plateau,  and  from  the  lodge  of  the  gatekeeper  we  could  see 
the  lights  of  the  city  of  Oaxaca,  and  farther  back  the  long- 
stretched  cloud-belt  of  the  Tierra  Caliente,  illuminated  now 
and  then  by  a  flash  of  sheet-lightning.  But  the  peaks  of 
Colula  on  our  left  were  glittering  cold  and  clear  in  the  pale 
moonlight,  and  the  zenith  of  our  own  table-land  was  as 
cloudless  as  ever.  In  the  intervals  of  the  coast-lightnintrs 
only  the  faint  forest-perfume  of  the  night  wind  suggested 
the  neighborhood  of  an  ocean  of  tropical  vegetation. 

Torches  and  Chinese  lanterns  were  now  lighted  in  the 
park  and  around  the  terrace  of  the  main  buikling,  where 
the  choralists  had  assembled  after  surrendering  their  pavilion 


254  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

to  tlie  lady  visitors.  The  presence  of  a  number  of  well- 
dressed  mozos  from  Chimaltepec  proved  that  the  popularity 
of  the  patron  saint  was  not  confined  by  the  comarca  limits ; 
and,  to  judge  by  their  frequent  visits  to  the  contribution- 
box,  Santa  Lucia's  chances  for  a  new  head-dress  began  to 
brighten.  But  when  tlie  choir  was  reinforced  by  a  guitar- 
player  from  Amatlan,  the  enthusiasm  of  her  devotees  became 
a  trifle  secular,  and  if  the  expected  preacher  had  called  the 
meeting  to  order  just  then  the  vanity  of  all  earthly  things 
would  have  been  a  rather  unpopular  text.  Nobody  inter- 
fered :  the  abbot  himself  clicked  his  plate  like  a  castanet, 
and  averted  his  attention  with  the  utmost  bonhomie  if  an 
unmindful  dancer  happened  to  pass  the  boundary  between 
ronda  and  fandango  by  a  step  or  two. 

The  true  Semitic  askesis  can  flourish  only  in  a  desert 
country,  where  the  idea  of  a  better  world  to  come  is  within 
reach  of  our  imagination,  and  where  it  is  less  difficult  to 
renounce  an  earth  which,  after  all,  might  be — our  only 
chance.  But  here  the  very  monks  declined  the  risk  of  the 
experiment.  The  "  vale-of-tears"  theory  is  untenable  in 
the  Valley  of  Oaxaca. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE   DELTA    OF   THE   SUMASINTA    RIVER. 

Here  they  are  free:  here  they  find  shelter-place?, 
Beyond  the  reach  of  their  remorseless  foe. 

IIuckkrt:    77(6  Chlldreu  of  Xrdiiie. 

On  the  eastern  slope  of  Mount  Atlas  there  is  a  valley 
which  for  many  centuries  has  been  the  freehold  of  the  Beni 
Hammadin,  a  tribe  of  indej>cndent  Arabs  who  boast  that 
Allah  has  built  up  their  mountain-ramparts  for  the  special 
purpose  of  protecting  their  liberty  against  the  ambition  of 
the  padishah.  Perha])s  they  are  right,  for  it  really  seems 
as  if  Providence  had  taken  precautionary  measures  against 
all  plans  of  universal  empire,  since  even  the  power  of  man 
over  the  brute  creation  has  been  restricted  within  liberal 
but  probably  unalterable  boundaries.  Earth  will  never  be 
all  enslaved.  No  diver  has  yet  invaded  the  algfc-pastures 
of  the  northernmost  ocean,  and  no  hunters  will  ever  follow 
the  white  bear  to  the  Ultima  Thule  of  his  arctic  domain 
nor  molest  his  black  brother  in  the  depth  of  the  tropical 
coast-jungles. 

In  the  swamps  of  Maine  and  Oregon,  whose  lagoons  are 
alternately  bridged  by  frost  and  evaporated  by  midsummer 
droughts,  snakes  and  bears  might  be  permanently  extermi- 
nated ;  but  in  Florida  an  enterprise  of  that  kind  ^^•ould  re- 
quire a  Chinaman's  patience,  combined  with  super- Yankee 
ingenuity;   and   in  Southern  Mexico  even  Orion  and  St. 


256  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Patrick  would  prefer  day-wages  to  a  job  contract.  Trav- 
ellers, for  instance,  who  have  visited  the  State  of  Tabasco, 
southeast  of  Vera  Cruz,  will  admit  that  the  difficulty  of 
detecting  the  proverbial  needle  in  a  haystack  would  be  mere 
child's  play  compared  with  the  problem  of  discovering  a 
fugitive  wild  animal  in  the  fens  that  skirt  the  Rio  Zelades 
or  the  Great  Sumasinta,  whose  delta  can  only  be  crossed  by 
water-ways,  the  shore-thickets  being  absolutely  impervious 
to  man  and  all  his  locomotive  contrivances. 

The  Sumasinta,  or  Usamasinta — the  shoreless  river,  as  it 
may  be  called  in  the  lower  sixty  miles  of  its  course  through 
the  Tierra  Caliente — was  formerly  the  great  highway  be- 
tween the  southwestern  Gulf  coast  and  the  Pacific  slope  of 
South  Mexico  and  Guatemala,  but  the  weekly  steamers 
from  Panama  to  Vera  Cruz  have  made  that  circuitous  route 
the  quicker  as  well  as  the  cheaper  one,  and  the  traffic  of 
Northern  Yucatan  has  found  new  harbors  in  Sisal  and 
Campeche.  For  travellers  from  Palenque  or  San  Carlos 
to  Southern  Yucatan,  however,  the  old  Sumasinta  mail- 
barge  is  still  Hobson's  choice,  and  from  Guatemala  to  San 
Carlos  nearly  so,  the  alternative  being  a  canoe-trip  with 
Indian  oarsmen  and  night-camps  in  the  mosquito-jungle. 
In  the  summer  of  1875  the  exigencies  of  the  government 
troops  in  Southern  Yucatan  had  jDressed  all  the  Sumasinta 
mail-boats  into  the  transport  service  on  the  lower  river,  and, 
having  reached  the  Guatemala  frontier  a  day  after  the  de- 
parture of  a  merchant's  conducta  which  had  engaged  the 
available  canoes,  we  were  obliged  to  make  our  way  through 
the  shore-forests  as  far  as  Lagunas,  twenty  miles  farther 
down,  where  the  influence  of  my  clerical  fellow-traveller 
procured  us  a  passage  on  board  of  a  raft-faluca,  a  flat-boat 
with  provisions  for  a  logwood-camp  not  far  from  the  junc- 
tion of  the  Sumasinta  with  the  Chiatlan,  the  latter  river, 


THE  DELTA    Ot    THE  SUMASINTA   RIVER.       257 


TllK    SWAMPS    OF    TIIK    SUMASINTA. 

according  to  reliable  report,  being  still  navigute.l  by  the 
accoiuiii^  faluca   was    rather    over- 

govcrnnieut   niail-barges.      Ihe   taliua 


258 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


loaded,  though  skiffs  and  side-rafts  added  to  her  breadth 
of  beam,  but  with  our  bramble-torn  shins  and  gnat-bitten 


THE    KAFT    FALUCA. 


faces  a  seat  on  a  coffee-bag  pile  in  the  shade  of  the  mat  sail 
seemed  comfort  itself;  and  our  content  was  enhanced  by 
the  discovery  that  we  had  reached  her  just  in  time,  for  seven 
leagues  farther  down  the  banks  began  to  disappear :  the 
stream  had  turned  into  an  island-studded  lake.  A  map 
showing  the  terra-firma  boundaries  of  the  river  would  rep- 
resent the  Sumasinta  as  a  monster  stream,  measuring  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  miles  from  shore  to  shore ;  but,  more  prop- 
erly speaking,  it  might  be  described  as  a  river  meandering 
through  a  swamp-archipelago,  or  rather  through  woods  that 
have  adapted  themselves  to  a  permanent  state  of  inundation. 
Here  flourishes  the  many-rove :  bog's  and  fjood-sized  islands 
are  entirely  covered  with  its  sap-green  copses,  hung  around 
and,  as  it  seems,  supported  by  offshoots  that  send  sprouts  to 
the  ground  like  the  aerial  roots  of  the  banian-tree;  palms 


THE   DELTA    OF  THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.       259 

rise  from  the  thickets  wherever  the  alluvium  has  accumu- 
lated above  high-water  mark ;  and  here  and  there  a  majos- 
tic  copal-tree  guarantees  the  stability  of  one  of  the  wooded 
islets  whose  jungle  vegetation  would  not  secure  it  against 
being  torn  from  its  moorings  and  swej)t  away  like  drift- 
wood by  the  next  freshet.  The  river  itself — i.e.  the  cur- 
rent— often  loses  itself  in  the  mazes  of  the  arc^hipelago, 
divided  perhaps,  and  as  it  were  absorbed,  by  an  open  cy- 
press forest,  and  reappearing  farther  below  at  the  end  of  a 
large  lake  or  sweeping  like  a  mill-race  through  a  strait  be- 
tween two  large  islands.  The  river-pilot  knows  and  avoids 
these  rapids  on  account  of  the  snags  that  often  clog  the 
channel  in  unforeseen  places,  and  keeps  through  the  open 
lagoons,  steering  his  way  between  wooded  headlands  and 
pond-weed  shallows,  and  reefing  his  sail  where  the  rij)ple 
of  the  current  or  a  projecting  branch  suggests  subacjueous 
obstructions. 

"  Fe  de  mi  santo .'"  our  shipmaster  would  exclaim  when- 
ever we  approached  a  driftwood  pile,  "  otro  mal  punto" 
(another  dangerous  point).  "  May  the  saints  overlook  our 
sins !  Ouidad .'"  with  an  uneasy  glance  at  his  rough-and- 
ready  negro  pilot.  "  Take  care,  man :  don't  spit  in  the 
water.     It's  unlucky,  I  tell  you." 

"  Hang  those  fools  !  Starboard,  I  say  !  Bear  on  that 
rudder  !    Tenga  !  easy  now  :  confound  you  for  a  set  of " 

"  Don't  swear,  man,  till  we  get  out  of  this  trap — don't ! 
That  tongue  of  yours  will  be  the  ruin  of  us.  Ouidad!^' 
and  so  on  till  the  mal  panto  was  i)asscd  and  saints  and 
sinners  resumed  their  cigarros. 

"  D'ye  see  that  log  sticking  out  of  the  mud  across  there  ?" 
said  the  pilot,  when  we  passed  through  a  sedgy  lake  near 
the  mouth  of  a  sluggish  tributary.  "  Well,  boss,  two  years 
ago  there  was  an  island  there  as  large  as  Morgan's  Bar  near 


260  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Galveston  harbor,  and  last  October  the  river  swept  it  clean 
away,  trees,  jungle,  and  all, — fifteen  acres  of  it  I  should 
say, — though  it  hadn't  been  rainier  than  usual,  either.  1 
have  known  this  river  to  rise  seven  feet  in  forty  minutes 
without  any  warning :  if  a  fellow  was  going  to  settle  on  one 
of  those  islands,  he  might  get  a  free  passage  to  Campeche 
some  fine  night." 

Among  tlie  various  theories  by  which  the  natives  account 
for  these  sudden  freshets,  the  most  plausible  ascribes  them 
to  the  bursting  of  some  large  upland  lake.  Between  Eli- 
sario  and  the  Guatemala  frontier  the  Sumasinta  is  flanked 
by  large  lagoons,  some  of  which,  in  the  dry  season  at  least, 
are  true  lakes, — i.e.,  inland  waters  with  smaller  or  larger 
affluents,  but  without  any  permanent  outlet.  In  the  rainy 
season,  however,  the  tributary  creeks  become  torrents,  and, 
after  swelling  their  lake  till  its  banks  give  way,  discharge 
their  accumulated  waters  into  the  next  river  valley  like  the 
deluge  of  a  cloud-burst.  Whole  forests  of  trees  and  brush- 
wood are  thus  swept  away  and  scattered  over  the  delta- 
islands,  where  they  either  take  root  in  the  new  alluvium  or 
blockade  the  skirts  of  the  forests  with  mountainous  heaps 
of  driftwood.  Indirectly,  too,  these  floods  help  to  make 
the  jungles  of  the  lower  Sumasinta  the  most  impregnable 
thickets  on  earth  by  stimulating  the  vegetation  of  the  under- 
brush into  a  rankness  which  can  hardly  have  been  exceeded 
by  the  fern-forests  of  the  Triassic  period.  Wherever  the 
jungles  are  periodically  submerged  the  fertilizing  sediments 
favor  the  growth  of  the  kiedraselvas,  or  swamp-liana,  a 
thorny  creeper  that  spreads  along  the  ground  from  bush 
to  bush,  and  knits  even  a  strip  of  willows  or  canebrake 
into  a  formidable  hedge. 

Though  abounding  with  game,  the  Sumasinta  jungles 
are  therefore  no  hunter's   paradise,  and   the  ferce  naturce 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SVMASINTA    RIVER.        £61 

have  no  safer  asylum  on  the  western  hemisphere.  Hunting, 
in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word,  is  out  of  the  question.  A 
rifle-artist  may  kill  a  jaguar  at  his  drinking-place  or  bag  a 
peccari  or  two  while  the  herd  crosses  the  river,  but  neither 
a  Texas  trapper  nor  the  hardiest  wild  Indian  could  here 
follow  his  game  to  its  cover :  there  is  no  chance  of  pursuit, 
and  but  rarely  time  for  a  second  shot.  The  scattered  set- 
tlers keep  watch-dogs,  and,  at  the  most,  permit  them  to 
tree  a  raccoon  or  a  wild-cat  near  the  clearings,  for  out  in 
the  swamp  they  are  useless.  In  the  water  they  would  fall 
an  easy  prey  to  the  alligators  that  infest  even  the  smallest 
lagoons,  and  in  the  bush  a  dog  might  keep  a  wounded  deer 
at  bay  for  days  together  before  his  master  could  reach  him. 
A  pot-hunter  has  to  content  himself  with  waterfowl,  and 
the  pleasure  of  exploring  the  thickets  for  the  mere  sake  of 
adventure  would  be  more  than  outweighed  by  the  grievous 
mosquito-plague. 

We  made  our  first  landing  at  one  of  the  larger  islands, 
and,  finding  the  poop-cabin  insuiferably  close,  followed  the 
crew  ashore, — to  camp,  but  not  to  sleep  like  those  case- 
hardened  natives.  The  negro  pilot  sat  nodding  over  his 
camp-fire,  extracting  solace  from  a  pipeful  of  N.  C.  "Rebel 
Comfort,"  and  my  companion,  the  padre  Cristoval,  tossed 
and  grumbled  till  midnight  before  he  at  length  fell  a-snoring 
under  his  woollen  blanket,  though  he  had  preached  two 
years  at  the  hammer-works  of  the  San  Carlos  copper-mines, 
where  he  could  certainly  have  studied  the  art  of  sleeping 
under  difficulties.  I  had  bandaged  a  torn  Mexican  hat 
with  the  shreds  of  a  silk  iiandkcrchief  and  drawn  it  over 
my  face  like  a  hood,  but  after  a  long  and  vain  attempt  to 
breathe  through  the  interspaces  my  |)aticnceand  the  strings 
of  my  head-dress  gave  way  together,  and  I  concluded  to 
sit  at  bay  for  the  rest  of  the  night,  renouncing  Nature's 

17 


262  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

sweet  restorer  for  the  sweets  of  revenge  upon  my  winged 
tormentors.  How  I  envied  the  snoring  Franciscan  at  my 
feet!  The  current  in  the  canebrake  murmured  strange 
lullabies,  and  the  soughing  of  the  night  wind  in  the  tree- 
tops  sounded  drowsy  and  sleep-inviting;  but  it  wouldn't 
do :  the  blanket  threatened  me  with  suffocation,  and  with 
my  head  unprotected  I  would  not  trust  myself  to  nap  for 
fear  of  awakening  exsanguis.  The  morning  chill  hardly 
abated  the  fierce  buzz  around  me,  but  to  my  delight  our 
craft  got  under  way  with  the  first  twilight,  and  the  clouds 
overhead  seemed  to  veil  a  vertical  sun,  when  a  shower  at 
length  awakened  me  from  a  trance-like  slumber  in  some 
crevice  of  the  luggage-pile. 

I  have  often  wondered  if  the  human  hide  can  become 
mosquito-proof,  and  I  believe  that  our  tropical  red-skins 
become  hardened  against  at  least  the  after-effects  of  a  gnat- 
sting, — against  the  venom  that  distinguishes  the  bite  of  most 
winged  insects  from  that  of  a  flea.  By  a  many  thousand- 
fold repetition  of  the  doses  their  epidermis  becomes,  as  it 
were,  inoculated  with  the  poison  and  ceases  to  be  aifected 
by  its  virulent  stimulus.  They  feel  a  mosquito-bite  only 
as  we  should  feel  the  puncture  of  the  smallest  needle-point, 
and  old  swamp-rangers  may  at  last  get  callous  to  even  this 
mechanical  irritation,  as  blacksmiths  get  indurated  to  flying 
sparks  and  Bedouins  to  a  sand-storm.  This  ancesthesis  and 
the  fur,  feather,  and  scale  armor  of  wild  beasts  are  Nature's 
preventives,  and  probably  superior  to  the  best  artificial 
remedies.  A  sweltering  night  makes  it  doubtful  if  a  mos- 
quito-bar is  the  lesser  evil,  and  the  peace  obtained  by  fetid 
ointments  is  certainly  too  dear  bought.  Experimental  phi- 
losophy, however,  has  devised  a  more  comfortable,  though 
not  quite  infallible,  expedient.  Mosquitoes,  like  mildew 
and  miasma,  hug  the  ground,  the  bogs  and  the  rank  under- 


THE  DELTA    OF  THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.         263 

growth  of  the  tropical  forests,  and  rarely  rise  more  than 
thirty  feet  above  the  next  water-level.  Acting  upon  this 
discovery,  the  ranchero  of  the  Tierra  Caliente  builds  him- 
self a  platform  on  trestlework  or  swings  his  hammock  in 
the  top  of  a  tough-wooded  tree,  and  sleeps  in  peace  high 
above  the  vexations  of  the  lower  world — provided  that  the 
night  wind  does  not  disappoint  him  altogether.  In  abso- 
lutely calm  nights  the  gnats  somehow  get  on  the  track  of 
their  victim,  and  may  treat  him  to  a  surprise-party  even  in 
the  top  of  the  highest  tree. 

They  avoid  the  open  water,  at  least  in  daytime,  and  gave 
us  a  chance  to  study  the  varying  scenery  of  the  river-shores. 
Secas,  or  dry-land  isles,  alternate  with  aquatic  forests,  the 
latter  predominating:  on  our  left,  for  many  leagues,  the 
woods  were  inundated,  if  they  had  ever  been  out  of  water 
at  all.  Below  Lagnnas  the  average  water-mark  does  not 
vary  much  in  the  different  seasons,  the  pilot  told  me,  though 
freshets  which  subside  as  quickly  as  they  come  are  most 
frequent  between  June  and  December.  The  submergence 
of  their  lower  trunks  rather  agrees  with  the  majority  of 
tropical  trees,  and  seems  to  be  no  sei'ious  inconvenience  to 
their  wild  inhabitants.  Squirrels  and  palm-cats  disported 
themselves  in  the  upper  branches,  and  when  our  faluca 
skirted  a  mulberry-grove  a  monkey  of  the  genus  Mycetes 
descended  to  the  water's  edge,  paddled  the  scum  out  of  the 
way,  took  a  good  drink,  and  clambered  leisurely  back  into 
the  screening  foliage. 

Wherever  the  current  was  opposed  by  the  broadside  of 
an  island  the  wash  had  accumulated  hillocks  of  driftwood, 
and  on  one  of  tiiese  piles — a  good-sized  island  itself — we 
saw  an  animal  which  I  at  first  mistook  for  a  beaver,  but 
which  proved  to  be  a  large  swamp-otter  [Liitra  paJustris), 
light  brown  with  a  snow-white  belly,  and  a  whisker-like 


264  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

fringe  of  bristles  around  its  mouth.  At  the  approach  of 
our  raft  it  rose  on  its  hind  legs,  eyed  us  keenly,  and  slipped 
into  the  penetralia  of  its  fort,  where  it  probably  reared  its 
young,  more  secure  than  a  fox  in  his  subterranean  burrow. 
No  human  force,  no  axe,  could  have  forced  a  passage  through 
sixteen  acres  of  tangled  logs  and  brushwood  intertwisted 
with  the  coils  of  creepers  that  had  sprouted  in  the  bottom 
of  the  rubbish-heap  and  overspread  the  pile  with  a  mantle 
of  bright-green  leaves.  We  passed  numerous  floating  logs, 
some  of  them  bestridden  by  sea-turtles  on  their  return-trip 
from  an  expedition  to  the  sand-banks  of  the  upper  river, 
where  they  deposit  their  eggs  before  the  end  of  the  rainy 
season,  and,  trusting  their  incubation  to  the  sun  and  good 
luck,  commit  themselves  to  the  current,  which  sooner  or 
later  will  carry  them  back  to  their  haunts  in  the  Bay  of 
Campeche. 

The  rivers  of  this  swamp-region  abound  with  skate-shaped 
flying-fish,  whose  aeronautical  propensities  seemed  to  be 
excited  by  the  splash  of  our  oars  or  perhaps  by  the  gam- 
bols of  two  fresh-water  dolphins  that  had  accompanied 
the  faluca  from  our  last  landing,  but  gave  our  angles  a 
wide  berth.  Our  shipmaster  regarded  their  escort  as  an 
omen  of  a  lucky  trij) — "81  no  saltan  el  timon'' — unless  they 
should  jump  across  the  rudder,  which  would  presage  a  dire 
catastrophe;  and  it  seemed  really  as  if  they  had  brought 
us  good  weather,  for  the  threatening  clouds  had  so  far  let 
us  off  with  a  single  brief  shower.  A  continual  cackle  of 
gannets  mingled  with  the  chatter  of  our  mestizo  crew,  and 
now  and  then  a  pelican  swept  by  with  its  grunting  squawk. 
More  than  once  in  turning  some  bushy  headland  we  came 
suddenly  upon  a  conventicle  of  waterfowl  that  took  wing 
with  a  simultaneous  rush,  and  once  a  splendid  black  heron 
rose  from  the  skirts  of  acanebrake  almost  under  our  thwarts 


THE  DELTA    OF  THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.         265 

and  flopped  away  over  our  heads  with  a  noise  that  sounded 
like  a  clappino:  of  liands  in  the  air. 

Toward  evening  the  sun  came  out  for  a  moment  and 
glistened  upon  a  large  expanse  of  pond-weeds  on  our  left. 
It  looked  like  a  meadow  in  the  middle  of  the  lake,  a  level 
and  dense  tangle  of  green  tendrils  with  yellow  flowers,  fre- 
quented by  a  swarm  of  small  yellow  butterflies.  But  at 
the  edge  of  this  lacustrine  lawn  we  found  four  fathoms  of 
water,  and  the  flowers,  a  sort  of  water-pimpernel  [Nymphcea 
capilarts),  must  have  had  their  roots  at  the  end  of  an  equally 
long  stem.  The  strange  flower-])atch  measured  about  half 
a  mile  in  circumference,  and  in  the  centre,  in  a  small  pond 
of  open  water,  we  saw  a  crested  raoor-hen  with  her  chickens 
diving  around  and  exploring  the  vegetable  borders  of  their 
little  reservation.  They  too  were  safe :  only  a  winged  pur- 
suer could  have  followed  them  to  their  aquatic  asylum  : 
wading  was  out  of  the  question,  and  the  tangled  weeds 
would  have  impeded  the  progress  of  a  boat  as  well  as  of 
the  best  swimmer. 

After  twelve  leagues  of  alternate  rowing  and  sailing  we 
reached,  two  hours  before  sunset,  the  landing-jilace,  the 
wigwam  of  Corricntes,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Negro, 
where  we  had  to  wait  till  the  faluca  returned  from  the  log- 
wood-camp, about  fourteen  miles  up-stream  on  the  banks 
of  the  muddy  tributary.  Corrientes  had  been  one  of  the 
regular  landings  of  the  government  mail-barges,  which  now 
were  temporarily  withdrawn  from  this  part  of  the  river, 
and  we  were  now  only  twenty  miles  from  the  mission  of 
San  Gabriel,  whence  the  Chiatlan  boats  would  carry  us  to 
our  destination.  A  government  courier  who  had  joined  us 
at  Lagunas  grumbled  considerably  at  the  delay,  but  the 
luggage  of  the  padre  Cristoval  included  a  nuile  and  a  large 
wooden  box,  and  I  would  rather  not  have  trusted  my  own 


266  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

trunk  to  a  dug-out  canoe;  so  there  seemed  nothing  for  it 
but  to  await  the  return  of  the  faluca. 

The  station  depot  was  a  wretched  shanty,  but  farther  up 
we  found  a  weatherproof  log  cabin  and  a  little  Indian  wig- 
wam, where  we  bought  grapes  and  fresh  turkey-eggs.  Our 
purveyor  also  kept  hogs,  and  informed  us  that  he  had  to 
feed  them  on  cayman  flesh,  since  the  last  fresliet  had  played 
the  deuce  with  this  year's  nut-  and  acorn-mast,  except  on 
the  opposite  shore,  where  some  of  the  islands  were  above 
high-water  mark. 

"My  starved  hogs  would  swim  the  river  unless  I  pen 
them  up,"  he  said ;  "  so  I  have  to  choose  between  letting 
the  alligators  have  my  pork  and  feeding  my  porkers  on 
alligator  meat." 

"  Do  you  shoot  them  ?"  we  inquired. 

"  Can't  afford  it,  caballeros  :  times  are  hard,  and  powder 
and  shot  are  very  high  hereabouts.     I  spear  them." 

"  We  should  like  to  see  it,  but  it  must  be  a  rather  ticklish 
job  in  that  little  dug-out  of  yours  ?" 

"No,  no:  I  spear  them  ashore,"  he  said.  "There  is  not 
much  risk  about  it,  except  of  losing  my  harpoon.  It's  only 
half  a  mile  up  the  river,  and  we  can  be  back  in  time  por 
otra  cena — for  a  second  supper." 

"No  horse-thieves  around  here?"  asked  the  cautious 
Franciscan. 

"No  hay  cuidado:  your  worship's  mule  will  be  perfectly 
safe  here,"  laughed  the  old  Indian.  "  My  daughter  and 
her  cousins  wouldn't  steal  him,  and  there  is  nobody  else  on 
the  island  just  now :  our  bucks  have  gone  up  the  Eio  Negro 
turtle-hunting." 

Said  bucks  and  our  cayman-hunter  belonged  to  the  tribe 
of  the  Pintos,  a  horde  of  independent  fishers  and  hunters 
who  formerly  ranged  the  hill-country  between  Yucatan  and 


i 


THE  DELTA    OF  THE  SVMASINTA    RIVER.         267 

Guatemala,  but  liave  now  retreated  to  the  coast-forests  of 
Eastern  Tabasco,  where  they  defy  all  attempts  at  conversion 
and  civilization.  Their  neighbors,  of  the  race  called  the 
white  by  prescriptive  right,  accuse  them  of  anthropophagous 
habits,  a  charge  too  uniformly  preferred  against  all  pagan 
Indians  to  have  any  practical  significance.  I  believe  that 
they  are  quite  as  moral  as,  and  a  great  deal  more  intelligent 
than,  the  Christian  plantain-eaters  of  the  northern  Tierra 
Caliente. 

Half  an  hour  before  sunset  we  followed  our  guide  to  the 
landing,  where  he  took  a  harpoon  and  a  stout  club  from  the 
shed  of  the  station  dep6t,  and  led  us  to  a  narrow  jungle- 
path  that  kept  along  shore  and  across  different  log-bridged 
bayous.  In  a  baglike  piece  of  matting  he  carried  a  coil  of 
tarred  lariats  and  a  little  sucking  pig,  whose  grunts  of  dis- 
content rose  to  a  shriek  whenever  the  bag-carrier  accelerated 
his  pace.  A  sort  of  swamp-fog  had  settled  over  the  woods 
when  we  halted  behind  a  coppice  of  taxus-trees  near  the 
shore  at  a  point  where  a  projecting  sand-bank  formed  a  little 
river-bay.  The  Pinto  cast  a  searching  look  across  the 
water,  and,  motioning  us  to  stand  back,  deposited  his  cargo 
in  a  bush  and  proceeded  to  business.  Selecting  an  over- 
hanging bough  about  six  yards  from  the  water's  edge,  he 
stripped  it  of  its  leaves,  girdled  the  squealer  with  a  double 
hitch  of  his  lariat  and  suspended  him  in  the  fork  of  the 
bough  at  a  height  of  about  four  feet  from  the  ground.  He 
then  uncoiled  a  longer  and  stouter  lariat,  and  fastened  one 
end  to  a  tough  but  elastic  sapling  and  the  other  to  the  han- 
dle of  his  harpoon.  An  indescribably  offensive  smell  de- 
terred us  from  examining  a  little  box  which  he  had  left  on 
his  poncho  behind  the  taxus-hedge.  He  o})ened  it,  took  a 
twisted  string  of  bombax  wool  from  his  girdle  and  greased 
it  with  the  contents  of  the  box,  a  yellowish  viscid  substance 


268  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

whose  composition  he  seemed  unwilling  to  disclose.  "  It 
belongs  to  the  station-master,"  he  said :  "  I  don't  know 
where  he  gets  it."  Its  effluvium  seemed  a  mixture  of  musk, 
putrid  meat,  and  something  resembling  the  pungent  odor 
of  sal-ammoniac.  He  tied  one  end  to  the  next  bush,  and 
weighting  the  other  with  a  piece  of  wood  threw  it  into  the 
river. 

"  What's  that  for?"  we  inquired,—"  a  bait?" 

"  Yes,  a  nose-bait,"  said  he :  "  the  pig  is  for  the  eyes  and 
ears,  and  now  comes  the  grub-bait,"  taking  one  more  bun- 
dle from  the  matting,  a  rag  containing  three  chunks  of  half- 
roasted  meat.  "  That  will  make  him  mount  the  barrera,^^ 
he  chuckled.  The  barrera  (barricade)  between  the  taxus- 
thicket  and  the  water's  edge  was  a  long  sand-dam,  capped 
with  a  row  of  gnarled  logs.  Toward  the  water  the  dam 
sloped  very  gradually,  while  its  landward  front  was  abrupt 
enough  to  check  the  speed  of  a  retreating  reptile. 

After  depositing  the  tidbits  at  equal  intervals  between 
the  beach  and  the  ridge  of  the  barrera,  the  hunter  stimu- 
lated his  pig  with  a  kick  that  ensured  its  vocal  co-operation 
for  the  next  ten  minutes,  and  joined  us  in  our  ambush,  spear 
in  hand.  The  sun  had  set  some  time  ago,  but  the  air  was 
still  oppressively  sultry — not  a  ripple  on  the  bay,  save 
where  little  fishes  played  duck-and-drake  upon  the  surface 
or  a  louder  splash  suggested  the  advent  of  the  much-baited 
saurian. 

"  It's  getting  dark,"  said  one  of  my  Mexican  companions 
at  last,  breaking  a  long  silence :  "  this  seems  a  poor  place 
for  cayman-hunting." 

The  Pinto  raised  his  hand,  but  made  no  reply,  looking 
immovably  in  the  same  direction. 

"  Do  you  see  one,"  asked  the  padre. 

"  There  are  four  or  five  of  them  heading  this  way,"  wliis- 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.       269 

pered  the  hunter :  "  one  was  close  by  here  a  minute  ago, 
when  that  other  gentleman  began  to  talk.  Speak  low, 
please." 

"  Where,  in  the  name  of " 

"  Hush  !  here  he  comes." 

At  the  lower  end  of  the  dam  a  dark  object  rose  slowly 
from  the  water  till  its  upward  and  shoreward  motion  re- 
vealed the  lower  outline  of  the  shapeless  protuberance. 
The  Pinto  was  right :  that  was  the  head  of  an  old  cayman, 
or  coast- alii  gator,  distinguished  from  the  northern  variety 
by  a  flatter  tail  and  receding  lower  jaw.  He  mounted  the 
beach  opposite  the  lower  extremity  of  the  barrera  and  wad- 
dled around  the  dam,  raising  his  head  every  now  and  then 
to  reconnoitre  the  bushes  on  his  left.  He  either  had  not 
yet  seen  the  pig  or  meant  to  approach  it  from  the  land  side. 

"  Mala  suerte !"  muttered  the  Pinto — "  confound  the 
luck !  He  is  bound  to  spy  us  if  he  gets  through  that 
bush.     If  he  keeps  on  I'll  have  to  try  him  at  long  range." 

The  cayman  hobbled  across  a  fallen  tree  and  the  harpoon 
rose:  another  step  forward  would  bring  him  in  sight  of 
our  ambush.  But  no :  he  stopped  and  listened,  and  as  if 
his  guardian  spirit  had  whispered  a  word  in  his  ear  he  sud- 
denly turned,  dashed  through  the  bush,  and  waddled  back 
into  his  native  element. 

"  A  lost  game,"  said  the  courier  :  "  he  has  seen  us." 

"  Keep  quiet,"  whispered  the  hunter.  "  No,  no,  he's  all 
right :  he  has  seen  the  pig ;  only  that  tree  bothered  him. 
He's  going  to  try  from  the  other  side,  just  where  I  want 
him." 

But  minute  after  minute  passed  without  a  sound  or  sign 
of  our  departed  visitor.  While  we  listened  we  heard  a 
loud  triple  splash  on  our  left,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  up-stream. 

"Did  ye  hear  that?"  whispered  the  Pinto.     "There  are 


270  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

three  or  four  of  them  in  that  little  bayou  up  there.  Pura 
terquedad — sheer  contrariness  of  the  miserable  thick-skulls ; 
but  never  mind,  I  shall  get  even  with  some  of  them." 

"  We  had  better  go  there  now/'  I  suggested :  "  it  will  be 
dark  in  ten  minutes." 

The  Pinto  hugged  the  ground  and  raised  a  warning 
hand:  "Keep  quiet!  here  lie  comes  again.  I  thought  so," 
he  chuckled :  "  he's  smacking  his  chops.  The  old  pork- 
thief  believes  he  has  found  a  free  sausage-shop  this  time. 
I  wonder  what  he  will  think  of  himself  in  five  minutes 
from  now?" 

The  cayman  had  emerged  directly  in  front  of  us,  and 
could  be  seen  through  the  lower  branches  of  our  coppioe 
with  his  belly  squat  on  the  ground  and  his  upturned  jaws 
at  work  upon  the  first  chunk  of  roast  bait. 

"  I  believe  I  have  seen  that  chap  before,"  whispered  the 
Pinto  in  my  ear.  "  Yes,  it's  the  same  one-eyed  old  sinner. 
He  owes  me  two  pigs,  but  he's  going  to  pay  his  debts.  I'll 
whack  it  out  of  his  brain-box  before  that  river  has  run 
another  furlong.  But  let  us  keep  very  still  now :  not  a 
word,  gentlemen.     We'll  get  him  sure  this  time." 

The  pig  had  suddenly  stopped  squealing,  and  the  general 
silence  was  only  broken  by  the  doleful  squawk  of  a  tree- 
frog  over  our  heads. 

The  cayman  had  gobbled  the  second  chunk  and  advanced 
upon  the  dam,  but  stopped  short  at  sight  of  the  third  and 
largest  morsel.  He  cocked  his  head,  and  his  solitary  eye 
assumed  a  puzzled  expression.  Who  was  the  unknown 
benefactor  ?  No  answer  to  the  mute  enie-ma, — nothing  but 
the  monotonous  call  of  the  tree-toad.  Never  mind  :  No.  3 
followed  its  predecessors.  On  top  of  the  dam  he  stopped 
once  more,  and  glared  at  the  pig  in  surprise  and  apparent 
mistrust  of  his  own  senses.     It  might  seem  incredible,  but 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.       271 

there  it  was,  an  actual  living  pig  within  easy  reach,  ohviou.s 
even  to  a  one-eyed  cayman.  Should  it  be  a  trap?  He 
looked  sideways  and  turned  his  head.  Nothing  stirring: 
the  very  air  seemed  to  stagnate — Nature's  voice  reduced 
to  the  monotone  of  the  tree-toad.     The  coast  was  clear. 

Still He  seemed  on  the  point  of"  sliding  back,  but 

suddenly,  as  if  ashamed  of  his  own  misgivings,  he  jerked 
his  tail  up,  leaned  forward,  and  plumped  into  the  sandy 
hollow  behind  the  barricade. 

The  Pinto  sprang  up,  and  the  cayman  turned  like  a  shot 
and  headed  for  the  dam,  and  up  it  with  super-reptilian  en- 
ergy ;  but  the  gnarled  logs  delayed  him  for  a  moment,  and 
in  that  moment  the  iron  went  crashing  through  his  scaly 
hide,  and  the  pent-up  emotions  of  the  Pinto  found  vent  in 
an  exultant  yell.  The  spear  stuck.  "  Mil  caraxos !  I 
got  you  this  time  ! — Look  out !  here  he  comes !" 

Jerked  back  by  the  tension  of  the  lariat,  the  captive  came 
floundering  through  the  bush,  making  the  leaves  fly  around 
his  switching  tail,  and  several  times  plunged  forward  with 
an  impetus  that  would  have  snapped  the  rope  like  a  trout- 
line  if  the  elasticity  of  the  sapling  had  not  broken  the  force 
of  his  spring.  The  Pinto  had  seized  his  club,  a  stout 
cudgel  of  hackberry  wood,  and  jumped  around  his  reckless 
prisoner  with  anathemas  that  would  have  ai)})alled  any 
other  heart;  but  the  intrepid  saurian  only  redoubled  his 
efforts  till  the  rope  caught  in  the  root  of  a  bush,  compli- 
cating the  difficulties  of  his  situation  to  a  hopeless  degree. 
He  was  at  the  end  of  his  tether,  and,  seeing  his  opportu- 
nity, the  Pinto  dealt  him  a  whack  across  the  head  that  laid 
him  sprawling  on  his  back.  The  second  blow  made  him 
rear,  with  his  jaws  full  of  broken  teeth,  and  the  third  and 
fourth  squirted  a  mixture  of  blood  and  brains  from  his 
nostrils.     The  cayman  had  paid  his  debt. 


272 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


We  slept  in  peace  that  night,  as  the  tight  walls  and  nar- 
row windows  of  onr  cabin  favored  a  successful  application 


SETTLING    OLD    SCORES. 


of  the  smoke-pot  process,  which  consists  in  evicting  the 
winged  tenants  of  an  apartment  with  a  potful  of  smoulder- 


THE  DELTA    OF  THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.       273 

ing  leaves,  and  preventing  their  return  by  screening  tlie 
apertures  with  a  double  sheet  of  gauze.  Common  leaves 
or  dry  moss  answer  the  purpose  very  well,  but  the  Creoles 
of  the  lowland  tobacco-plantations  use  by  preference  the 
sobras  or  sweepings  of  the  curing-houses,  and  breathe  the 
densest  nicotine  fumes  with  all  the  gusto  of  an  old  toper 
sniffing  the  alcohol  effluvium  of  a  wine-cellar. 

I  believe  that  the  gift  of  sleeping  is  a  distinct  faculty 
which  can  be  cultivated  without  the  aid  of  sucii  palliatives 
of  insomnia  as  gluttony  and  alcoholic  debauches.  Our  fa- 
luca  was  not  expected  before  noon,  and,  finding  the  morning 
air  agreeably  cool,  I  returned  to  the  cabin  after  breakfast 
to  invite  the  Franciscan  to  a  stroll  through  the  woods,  but 
found  him  snoring  in  a  corner  where  he  had  fallen  asleep 
among  the  remnants  of  his  frugal  repast.  Sauntering 
along  the  beach,  I  met  the  Pinto  with  a  big  shoulder-bag 
containing  a  section  of  the  captured  alligator,  whom  he  had 
chopped  up  in  situ  like  a  log;  and  on  my  return  to  the 
station  depot  I  found  our  courier  hobnobbing  with  the 
wigwam  belles,  who  had  brought  in  a  jugful  of  pineapple 
cider  from  an  outlying  cottage.  There  were  three  of  tliem, 
— a  stout  wench  of  eighteen  or  twenty,  with  a  red-lined 
reboso  or  head-shawl  and  a  sort  of  dalraatica,  sack-like,  but 
more  sensible  than  the  strait- jackets  of  the  North  Mexican 
country -girls ;  and  the  twin  daughters  of  the  station-mas- 
ter, a  little  taller  than  their  stout  cousin,  as  they  called  her, 
but  perhaps  younger  in  years,  and  evidently  so  in  social  ex- 
perience. One  of  them,  who  shook  my  hand  with  the  zeal 
of  an  old  acquaintance,  was  "  barefoot  uj)  to  the  neck,"  as 
good  Bishop  Heber  described  the  toilette  of  the  Bombay 
nautch-girls,  but  wore  a  sailcloth  imitation  of  her  cousin's 
reboso  triinuKjd  with  copper  tacks  and  capped  by  way  of 
climax  with  the  rowel  of  a  Mexiciui  spur.     Her  somewhat 


274  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

smaller  sister  preserved  her  sangfroid  in  the  costume  of 
the  Nereids.  They  acquainted  us  with  the  current  gossip 
of  the  wigwam.  Pepita,  she  of  the  spur-bonnet,  informed 
me  that  her  aunt  Inez  contemplated  the  purchase  of  a  milch 
goat,  and  that  her  brother  Pancho  would  probably  win  a 
prize  in  the  next  sculling-match ;  and  they  were  just  de- 
scribing the  visit  of  two  American  logwood-choppers  during 
the  late  freshet  when  the  approach  of  Father  Cristoval  set 
them  agog  with  curiosity  and  surprise.  What !  a  padre,  a 
monk,  without  a  cross  and  without  an  acolyte !  Was  he 
going  to  preach  like  the  missionary  from  Campeche  ?  Would 
there  be  a  gift-distribution  of  rosaries  and  pictures? 

"  Ye  fell  barbarians,  what  are  you  doing  ?"  laughed  the 
padre.  "  Coquetando  con  las  peUadas  oanibales — flirting 
with  the  sansculotte  cannibals? — And  you,  nina,  don't  you 
know  it's  wicked  to  wear  a  head-dress  like  that?  How  is 
a  poor  stranger  going  to  resist  a  red-lined  reboso  with  forty 
spangles  ?" 

Pepita  giggled. 

"  You  are  right,"  said  the  stout  wench  :  "  she  ought  to 
know  better  than  to  put  on  airs  about  that  bonnet, — a  person 
in  her  circumstances,  not  having  a  shirt  or  shift  to  her 
name !" 

Pepita  grinned. 

"  Y  mira,'^  continued  the  wench — "  look  here !  She 
stuffs  her  braids  with  sow-bristles  to  make  them  look 
fuller." 

"  That  will  do  now,"  said  the  courier:  "you  are  only 
envious." 

"  Envious  about  what  ?  That  bonnet  of  hers  ?  There 
is  nothing  enviable  about  it.  She  got  those  tacks  out  of  an 
old  mule-saddle,  and  the  red  lining  is  all  a  sham.  Mira  ! 
she  fringed  it  with  a  bit  of  red  yarn  to  make  it  look  lined 


THE   DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.        275 

like.  Humbug !  Look  here !  nothing  inside  but  greasy 
canvas !" 

Pepita  snatched  her  bonnet  away,  and — paradox  of  the 
female  mind ! — the  same  maiden  whose  equanimity  could 
resist  the  most  glaring  defects  of  apparel  had  blushed 
crimson  through  her  dusky  skin  at  a  discovered  deficit  in 
fripperies. 

"  Ay,  que  seas  maldita,  cabrona — shame  on  you  for  a 
malicious  vixen  !"  she  hissed,  and  whisked  away,  with  her 
still  nuder  sister  at  her  heels. 

The  padre  shook  his  head  :  '*  What  a  state  of  aifairs  for 
a  Christian  country !  The  governor  of  Tabasco  ought  to 
be  tarred  and  feathered,  together  with  all  his  breechless 
backwood  apes.  Heaven  defend  me  from  the  African  sav- 
ages if  they  are  any  worse  than  our  Pintos  !" 

"Why  doesn't  your  holy  order  reclaim  them?" 

"  We  tried  to,"  said  the  Franciscan,  "  but  they  are  the 
most  inconvertible  of  bipeds.  It's  impossible  for  a  white 
man  to  follow  them  in  all  their  wild  wanderings,  and  the 
casual  proselytes  relapse  into  barbarism  as  soon  as  they  are 
out  of  sight.  They  are  called  Pintos  because  they  used  to 
paint  their  bodies  like  barber-poles,  you  know  ;  and  one  of 
our  missionaries  converted  a  whole  village  of  them  up  on 
the  Chiatlan,  and  thought  he  had  cured  them  of  that  paint- 
ing mania,  but  when  he  revisited  their  place  after  a  year  or 
two  he  caught  one  of  his  vicars  dancing  in  a  coat  of  yellow 
ochre  and  copal  varnish." 

When  I  repacked  my  trunk  the  courier  came  in  and 
asked  me  for  the  loan  of  my  pocket-knife  to  cut  a  piece  of 
scarlet  cloth  out  of  the  lining  of  his  poncho.  While  cross- 
ing a  brier-patch  behind  the  wigwam,  he  said,  he  had  found 
the  twins  rolling  on  the  ground,  drenching  the  grass  with 
tears,  which  the  duty  of  a  cavalier  required   him  to  dry. 


276  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

Just  before  the  faluca  reached  her  landing  the  sisters  slipped 
into  our  shanty,  all  smiles  and  thanks,  to  inquire  if  we 
could  spare  them  a  needle  and  a  little  black  thread.  They 
had  resolved,  en  petite  comite,  to  elaborate  a  bonnet  that 
should  burst  the  midriif  of  their  envious  cousin. 

Below  Corrientes  the  Sumasinta  becomes  broader  and 
deeper,  often  expanding  into  a  placid  lake  whose  waters 
reflect  the  varying  hues  of  the  firmament  and  the  different 
tints  and  shades  of  the  shore-vegetation.  The  shell-banks 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Gordo  glittered  like  snow,  and 
seemed  to  stretch  inland  and  northward  for  a  considerable 
distance.  The  birth-land  of  this  tributary  abounds  with 
lakes,  some  of  them  flanked  with  dangerous  quicksands, 
and  one  of  its  upper  afiluents,  the  Rio  Pinto,  drains  an 
almost  unapproachable  wilderness.  Turtle-hunters  who 
have  ascended  the  Rio  Gordo  in  their  small  sailing  boats 
report  that  even  in  the  dry  season  its  banks  consist  of  a 
black  vegetable  mud  more  yielding  and  treacherous  than 
quicksand,  while  the  thickets  are  infested  with  panthers  and 
jaguars,  who  here  have  become  almost  wholly  arboreal  in 
their  habits  and  prey  upon  monkeys  and  various  kinds  of 
gallinaceous  tree-birds.  Our  shipmaster,  who  had  visited 
this  region,  assured  me  that  where  sloths  and  monkeys  are 
scarce  the  jaguar  will  attack  the  camps  of  the  roving  In- 
dians with  reckless  ferocity,  and  can  often  be  captured  by 
baiting  a  trap  with  a  human  corpse.  A  half-breed  hunter, 
he  said,  who  had  thus  avenged  the  death  of  his  brother, 
was  himself  poisoned  by  a  scratch  of  the  captured  man- 
eater,  and  would  have  died  if  his  comrades  had  not  ampu- 
tated his  arm  at  the  shoulder. 

The  weather  of  the  past  twenty-four  hours  had  been  too 
fine  to  last,  and  t^velve  miles  below  our  last  landing  we 
were  caught  in  a  thunderstorm  that  drove  us  shivering  and 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA   RIVER.        277 

chattering  into  the  liindniost  corner  of  the  poop-cabin, 
while  our  naked  oarsmen  continued  their  work  with  aggra- 
vating coinpkicency.  The  padre,  as  usual,  took  refuge  in 
Dreamland,  and  the  courier  in  a  tobacco-cloud.  "  Never 
mind,"  said  he  :  "  we  are  only  six  miles  from  San  Gabriel 
now:  the  major  will  comfort  our  souls  with  latter-pan- 
cakes and  hot  coffee." 

"The  major?  Commander  of  a  military  station,  I  sup- 
pose?" 

"  No  :  he  is  a  man  of  peace  and  somewhat  hunchbacked, 
but  commander-in-chief  of  the  port,  for  all  that.  He  has 
kept  a  ship-store  at  the  mission  for  the  last  seven  years,  be- 


\f^AtJsrsc 


MISSION    OF    SAN    (i A15HI  KI,. 


sides  a  tavern  and  the  station  d6p6t.  His  family  are  the 
only  white  people  in  the  settlement,  and  of  course  the  red- 
skins have  to  keep  in  the  rear  rank." 

"  Was  it  ever  a  regular  mission  ?" 

"Oh,  yes:  the  priests  had  a  school  and  a  cliapel  there, 
but  during  the  Indian  rebellion  of  1858  and  '5i)  their  con- 

18 


278  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

verts  gave  them  the  slip,  and  monks  know  better  than  to 
work  for  their  own  living.  They  went  back  to  Campeche, 
where  their  order  has  a  large  convent.  Their  chapel  is 
used  for  a  storehouse  now.  The  whole  place  is  a  curious 
old  wigwam,  growing  out  of  the  water  like  the  swamp- 
oaks  around  it.  It  will  be  pitch-dark  before  we  get  there, 
but  if  we  leave  to-night  you  must  take  a  look  at  it  while 
they  light  their  pitch-pan." 

Like  many  of  his  countrymen,  Major  Casales  rejoiced  in 
the  advent  of  a  stranger  as  an  Oregon  backwoodsman  hails 
the  arrival  of  the  Eastern  mail  with  the  accumulated  news 
of  the  last  three  or  four  weeks.  His  emotion  on  ascertain- 
ing that  two  of  us  came  directly  from  the  headquarter 
States  left  us  no  doubt  that  we  were  really  welcome.  He 
oversweetened  our  coffee  and  double-buttered  our  pancakes 
in  his  eagerness  to  learn  the  result  of  the  Diaz  manifesto 
and  the  presidential  counter-proclamation.  Was  Diaz  pop- 
ular with  the  army?  Would  the  United  States  support 
Tejada?  He  bustled  in  and  out  with  empty  pots,  wrong 
dishes  and  half-cooked  dishes,  inviting  us  to  help  ourselves 
and  obliging  us  to  make  the  freest  use  of  that  permission. 

Our  store  of  current  news  having  been  drained  to  the 
last  drop,  we  learned  that  the  courier's  impatience  had  been 
superfluous,  and  that  we  should  have  to  wait  here  for  a  full 
day,  as  the  barge  was  not  ex^Jected  before  the  next  follow- 
ing night.  The  Yucatan  insurrection  was  spreading,  the 
major  informed  us,  and  the  government  officials  hereabouts 
had  a  lively  time  of  it,  but  his  private  business  was  dull : 
the  upper-river  traffic  had  come  to  a  full  stop,  and  even  the 
turtle-hunters  had  made  themselves  scarce  for  fear  of  being 
pressed  into  the  "  volunteer  service,"  as  the  State  governors 
were  pleased  to  call  their  forced  levies.  The  agricultural 
prospects,  too,  were  rather  dreary :  the  banana  crop  was 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.        279 

rotting  on  the  stem,  and  tlie  continual  rains  would  prob- 
ably result  in  another  freshet  and  ruin  his  oak-mast. 

But  Don  Casales  had  evidently  laid  something  by  for  a 
rainy  day.  His  private  table  was  sumptuous,  and  the  fur- 
niture curiosities  of  his  parlor,  if  not  in  the  veiy  best  taste, 
demonstrated  certainly  the  ability  to  indulge  it.  After  pan- 
cakes and  politics  we  strolled  out  on  the  veranda  to  see  the 
bright  sheet-lightning  that  illuminated  the  sky  from  end  to 
end  every  other  second,  and  the  major's  conversation  })roved 
that  the  light  of  knowledge  can  enter  by  the  ear-door  as 
well  as  by  the  eye-window.  He  had  to  sign  his  name  by 
proxy,  but  expressed  himself  with  clearness  and  fluency, 
and  seemed  well  informed  on  most  points  of  contemporary 
interest.  "  Where  I  was  brought  up,"  he  said,  "  books 
were  only  known  from  hearsay,  and  I  confess  that  there 
was  a  time  when  I  thought  I  could  aiford  to  despise  them, 
but  I  gradually  discovered  that  without  a  school  education 
even  the  smartest  man  runs  a  handicapped  race.  I  use 
every  chance  to  impress  that  fact  on  my  boys,"  he  sighed, 
"  but,  as  usual,  they  follow  my  example  rather  than  my 
advice.  They  don't  seem  to  know  what  paper  is  good  for, 
except  to  make  into  shot-gun  wadding :  fishing  and  boat- 
adventuring  are  all  they  care  for." 

The  environs  of  San  Gabriel  seemed  indeed  to  favor  the 
ascendency  of  these  foibles.  The  vicinity  of  the  coast  was 
felt  in  the  heavy  throb  of  the  Gulf-tide  beating  against  the 
foundation-piles  of  the  building,  and  in  the  open  water 
farther  up  the  splash  of  leaping  fish  was  loud  and  incessant. 
The  open  bay  in  front  of  us  seemed  to  extend  for  several 
miles  southwest,  but  in  the  east  the  electric  flashes  re- 
vealed a  long  row  of  wooded  islands, — sombre  hillocks  with 
rounded  outlines  that  suggested  the  prevalence  of  palm-for- 
ests.    As  often  as  occasional  brighter  flashes  were  followed 


280  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

by  a  roll  of  thunder  the  echo  was  answered  by  the  distant 
voices  of  a  flamingo-swarm  in  some  reed-meadow  of  a  mist- 
shrouded  lagoon  in  the  north, — el  Lago  de  Patos,  at  the 
outskirts  of  the  great  Rio  Gordo  swamp.  This  swamp, 
Mr.  Casales  told  us,  was  supposed  to  be  the  retreat  of  a 
gang  of  pirates  who  infested  the  coast  between  Sisal  and 
the  Bay  of  Carmen,  and  who  reached  the  sea  by  some 
nortlieastern  channel  of  the  Rio  Gordo.  Logwood-cutters 
who  visited  the  lower  affluents  of  that  river  had  often  seen 
the  smoke  of  their  camp-fires  rising  from  the  heart  of  the 
jungle-wilderness  in  the  north,  or  heard  the  report  of  dis- 
tant rifle-shots  in  the  stillness  of  the  winter  nights.  The 
Lago  de  Patos  communicates  in  the  east  with  a  large  sedgy 
forest-lake  whose  islands  would  furnish  an  almost  inex- 
haustible supply  of  valuable  timber  if  the  dangerous  shoals 
that  obstruct  the  channel  could  be  dredged  or  avoided  by  a 
canal  from  the  Rio  Gordo  to  the  south  corner  of  the  timber- 
lake. 

The  breeze  from  the  direction  of  this  archipelago,  though 
moist  and  not  quite  free  from  a  certain  swamp-odor,  was 
agreeably  cool  and  promised  a  refreshing  night.  A  little 
flower-garden  on  our  left  sweetened  the  air  with  the  odor 
of  gillyflowers  and  blooming  oranges,  which  seemed  to 
have  attracted  a  swarm  of  nocturnal  honey-hunters:  moths 
of  all  sizes  and  forms  buzzed  around  our  ears  or  blundered 
with  a  dull  thud  against  the  panes  of  the  corner  window. 
Down  in  the  canebrake  a  water-fox  whimpered  like  a 
whining  child,  and  where  the  garden  adjoined  the  rank 
shore-forest  two  wills-o'-the-wisp  danced  around  a  rotten 
tree  with  that  peculiar  cold-white  flicker  that  differs  from 
fire  as  moonlight  does  from  sunshine.  Here  they  were 
the  only  lights  of  the  night, — no  beacon-fires,  no  flaming 
factory-chimneys  or    harbor-signals,   near  and    far.      The 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.        281 

horizon  was  dark  all  around,  but  there  was  a  charm  in  that 
very  solitude,  and  I  could  conceive  that  a  native  of  this 
island-world  would  be  loath  to  exchange  its  wild  freedom 
for  the  comforts  of  a  more  populous  country. 

Seiior  Casales  had  lived  here  for  the  last  eleven  years. 
He  was  an  observer,  in  his  own  M^ay,  of  Nature's  physicid 
and  moral  phenomena,  and  though  he  had  managed  to  live 
in  peace  with  his  neighbors,  and  had  rarely  ventured  beyond 
the  premises  of  the  mission  farm,  his  memoirs  of  the  last 
decade  would  have  furnished  the  material  of  a  curious  chron- 
icle of  the  wilderness.  One  night  about  the  end  of  the  rainy 
season  he  was  awakened  by  the  furious  barking  of  a  little 
terrier,  and,  descending  into  the  yard  with  a  lantern,  found 
that  a  big  black  wolf  had  swam  the  river  and  was  culti- 
vating the  acquaintance  of  his  mastiff  bitch.  He  went 
softly  up-stairs,  got  a  gun,  and  shot  the  shaggy  Leander 
before  he  discovered  his  danger.  The  major  had  seen  bear- 
tracks  on  the  sandy  neck  between  his  peninsula  and  the 
mainland,  and  used  to  keep  a  heavy  trap  chained  to  a  mul- 
berry-tree in  a  thicket  behind  the  mission  farm.  A  few 
mouths  ago  it  was  dragged  away  by  some  unknown  animal, 
the  chain  being  broken  close  to  the  root  of  the  tree,  while 
the  surrounding  bushes  were  trampled  down  and  the  tree 
itself  stripped  of  its  tough  bark  in  different  places.  All 
the  hunters  who  frequented  his  store  assured  him  that  no 
bear  could  have  torn  that  chain.    What  could  it  have  been  ? 

Some  equally  mysterious  two-legged  guests  had  visited 
the  mission, — hirsute  desperadoes  who  answered  no  ques- 
tions and  asked  none,  except  about  the  price  of  tobacco  and 
flannel  shirts,  and  were  permitted  to  depart  in  peace  after 
settling  their  bill,  or  fugitive  Indians  who  sought  and  ob- 
tained aid  in  the  name  of  the  common  father  of  ail  nations. 
One   morning,  while   the   rain   was  coming  down    like  a 


282  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

waterfall,  a  canoeful  of  armed  men  sought  shelter  in  his 
boat-house.  The  strangers  mounted  the  platform  of  his 
warehouse,  but  declined  his  invitation  to  enter  the  store. 
They  bought  a  bag  of  navy  biscuit  and  some  dried  meat, 
paying  in  advance,  and  asked  the  lady  of  the  house  to  get 
them  some  dinner  while  they  waited  under  the  wharf-shed. 
A  mess  of  mutton  and  sweet  potatoes  was  boiling  and  al- 
most done,  when  the  men  suddenly  hurried  to  their  boat 
and  pushed  off,  after  throwing  a  handful  of  copper  coins 
through  the  window.  They  were  out  of  sight  when  the 
major  stepped  out  on  the  wharf,  but  he  saw  the  government 
mail-barge  approach  the  landing  from  the  opposite  direction. 
The  swamp-pirates,  whose  vicinity  was  a  source  of  con- 
stant uneasiness  to  the  delta  settlers,  had  never  damaged 
him  in  his  property,  perhaps  for  the  same  reasons  that  in- 
duce a  fox  to  spare  the  hen-houses  in  the  near  neighbor- 
hood of  his  burrow ;  and  only  once  he  had  cause  to  believe 
that  some  unknown  party  or  parties  had  visited  his  place 
with  burglarious  intent,  and  would  have  robbed  him  if 
they  had  not  been  baffled  in  an  unexpected  way.  On  a 
high  shelf  behind  his  counter  he  keeps  a  cage  containing  a 
more  or  less  happy  family  of  squirrels  and  opossums  and 
two  monkeys,  a  capuchin  and  a  young  ceboo  (Ateles  panis- 
cus) ;  and  one  night,  between  two  and  three  a.m.,  he  heard 
the  latter  animal  screeching  with  all  its  might,  and  soon 
after  hurried  footsteps  on  the  veranda  in  front  of  his  store. 
His  Indian-of-all-work  rushed  in  from  an  adjoining  room, 
and  all  the  male  members  of  the  household  rallied  en  masse 
with  guns  and  lanterns ;  but  the  nocturnal  visitor  had  van- 
ished. The  store-door,  however,  stood  wide  open,  and  the 
major  was  positive  that  the  lock  must  have  been  picked,  as 
he  kept  the  key  in  his  bedroom.  The  would-be  marauder 
had  left  a  track  of  dirty  boots  between  the  wharf  and  the 


THE  DELTA    OF  THE   SUMASJNTA    RIVER.       283 

store,  but  as  there  were  no  marks  on  the  counter,  he  could 
not  have  hurt  the  monkeys  or  even  touched  their  cage,  and 
the  alarm-cry  of  the  little  ceboo  is  therefore  a  curious  in- 
stance of  the  manifestation  in  a  quadrumanous  animal  of 
an  instinct  which  in  general  may  be  said  to  be  confined  to 
one  species  of  mammals  and  a  single  genus  of  birds, — the 
canines  and  the  goose.  All  other  domestic  animals  witness 
the  plunder  of  their  master's  })roperty  with  ])erfect  uncon- 


A    PINTO    PATRIARCH. 


cern,  and  even  the  sagacious  horse  may  be  abducted  by  mid- 
night thieves  without  betraying  its  fears  by  the  slightest 
sound. 

We  took  a  bath  next  morning  in  a  tolerably  limpid  bayou 
between  two  flood-gates  warranted  alligator-proof.  The 
water  I  found  by  actual  measurement  fifteen  degrees  cooler 
than  the  air  in  the  shade  of  an  adjoining  caucho-grove. 
There  was  a  grayish-white  mist  on  the  river,  and  the  morn- 


284  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

iiig  wind  was  saturated  with  that  peculiar  swamp-odor 
whicli  on  the  lower  Mississippi  is  thought  to  be  sympto- 
matic of  the  deadliest  malaria.  The  delta  of  the  Sumasinta, 
however,  is  almost  free  from  climatic  diseases.  The  major 
took  us  to  the  cabin  of  a  reputed  centenarian,  a  Pinto  pa- 
triarch, who  remembered  the  great  Indian  rebellion  of  1798, 
and  whose  father  had  cultivated  maniocs  on  the  upper  Su- 
masinta before  any  white  man  had  penetrated  to  the  high- 
lands of  western  Tabasco.  He  was  mending  the  trimmings 
of  a  rawhide  saddle  apparently  coeval  with  himself,  and 
behind  the  cottage  a  young  Indian  was  engaged  in  skinning 
a  boa  which  his  grandfather  had  killed  with  a  common 
cudgel.  The  old  man  answered  our  greeting  with  a  cheery 
"  Buena  suerte  d  mis  cahallerosj"  but  bewailed  the  shame- 
less rapacity  of  a  swarm  of  palm-squirrels  who  still  entered 
his  larder  by  an  undiscovered  hole.  He  had  caught  one  of 
them  a  few  nights  before,  he  said,  anointed  him  with  tur- 
pentine-grease and  set  him  on  fire — jpor  ensetlaides  crianza 
— to  teach  them  manners ;  but  they  were  carrying  on  as 
bad  as  ever. 

His  countrymen  have  practically  relapsed  into  paganism, 
having  in  some  cases  exhausted  the  patience  of  their  would- 
be  converters  by  sheer  passive  resistance,  disregard  of  holy 
days  and  church  ordinances,  and  persistent  neglect  of  their 
cornfields.  The  "  mission  Indians"  were  in  the  habit  of 
smuggling  their  boys  away  as  soon  as  they  could  run,  per- 
mitting the  padres  to  support  the  young  squaws  during  the 
age  of  uselessness, — i.e.  from  infancy  to  the  middle  of  their 
teens, — after  which  they  managed  to  follow  their  brothers. 
When  the  monks  abandoned  the  mission  many  of  the  fugi- 
tives returned  and  emphasized  their  satisfaction  by  a  three 
days'  bonfire  that  lighted  the  midnight  skies  for  many  miles 
around. 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER. 


285 


The  Franciscan  missionaries  have  virtually  abandoned 
them  to  their  fate.  In  their  wigwam  meetings  the  saciiems 
studiously  discard  the  Spanish  language,  and  some  of  the 


SKINNING   A   BOA. 


old  squaws  set  a  bad  example  by  substituting  the  ancestral 
paint-pot  for  ini])orted  calicoes.  Tiiey  burlesque  the  Sab- 
bath by  mock  masses  with  war-dance  entr'actes,  and   tiie 


286  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES: 

trees  behind  the  mission  are  covered  with  hieroglyphic  in- 
scriptions which  can  hardly  have  been  dictated  by  a  spirit 
of  Christian  reverence,  the  emblem  of  the  cross  being  fre- 
quently combined  with  a  more  ancient  symbol  which  the 
sculptors  of  classic  Italy  also  used  rather  too  freely  in  their 
graphic  extravaganzas.  A  stone  image  of  San  Gabriel 
which  had  disajjpeared  from  the  mission  chapel  was  at  last 
discovered  in  the  cabin  of  an  Indian  hunter,  looking  very 
much  as  if  it  had  been  doing  duty  as  a  whetstone. 

But  the  Pintos  have  hardly  consulted  their  material  inter- 
ests in  neglecting  the  agricultural  lessons  of  the  good  padres  : 
the  cornfields  are  covered  with  weeds  and  the  irrigation- 
ditches  clogged  with  mud  and  driftwood.  The  hammock 
wigwams  cultivate  maniocs  and  perhaps  a  few  plantain- 
trees,  but  the  Pintos  of  the  delta  are  mostly  carnivorous. 
We  met  two  young  bucks  with  a  boa  which  they  had  shot 
in  the  taxus- swamp — ^'  -por  guiso  de  Domingo,  senores" — 
for  a  bit  of  a  Sunday-stew.  Boa  flesh  is  oily,  semi-trans- 
parent in  thin  slices,  and  has  a  musky  flavor,  but  is  perhaps 
not  more  indigestible  than  our  eel  pies  and  pork  fritters. 
In  point  of  diet,  indeed,  a  practical  philosopher  cannot  be 
blamed  for  suspecting  that  nature  and  habit  are  interchange- 
able terms.  Liebig  demonstrates  with  the  most  plausible 
logic  that  Hindoos  must  be  vegetarians, — that  they  have  to 
abstain  from  meat  on  pain  of  disease  and  physical  degen- 
eration; but  instill  more  torrid  climates  the  Ethiopians 
and  South  American  swamp-Indians  devour  all  the  meat 
they  can  get,  and  seem,  physically  at  least,  not  much  the 
worse  for  it.  Nobody,  however,  can  doubt  that  the  lethal 
effects  of  alcoholic  intemperance  are  swifter  and  more  in- 
curable in  a  tropical  country.  Neither  inherited  vigor  of 
constitution  nor  open-air  exercise  can  save  the  native  of  an 
equatorial  region  from  the  consequences  of  habitual  intoxi- 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE  SUMASINTA    RIVER.       287 

cation,  and  bibulous  immigrants  from  the  land  of  snow 
soon  find  that  their  sweet  poisons  cease  to  be  sweet  in  any 
sense  of  the  word.  With  the  rarest  exception,  the  Ameri- 
can Spaniards  use  their  ardent  liquors  neither  as  intoxicants 
nor  for  "  medical  purposes,"  but  rather  as  fluid  spices, — 
peptic  stimulants,  which,  like  pepper  and  ginger,  facilitate 
the  digestion  of  fat  in  a  tropical  climate. 

Our  boatmen  returned  in  the  course  of  the  afternoon, 
and  at  sunset  we  continued  our  trip  on  board  of  the  Rio 
Gordo  government  mail-barge  of  eighty  tons  to  Carmen 
harbor.  Below  San  Gabriel  the  Sumasinta  expands  into 
a  bay  known  as  the  Lago  de  Terminos, — "the  terminating 
lake,"  the  end  of  the  sweet-water  lagoons, — a  brackish 
estuary  whose  islands  are  twice  a  day  submerged  by  the 
surging  tide  of  the  Caribbean  Sea.  The  shores  here  recede 
to  a  hazy  distance,  and  the  tangled  thickets  that  cover  the 
littoral  swamps  are  almost,  or  wholly,  uninhabited,  a  para- 
dise of  bears  and  water-snakes.  Hunting  ceases  to  be 
profitable :  even  bear-trapping  \vould  not  repay  the  danger 
of  tempting  such  jungles. 

After  midnight  the  clouds  in  the  east  parted,  and  a 
waning  moon  blinked  down  upon  a  dismal  expanse  of  water 
and  gray  sand-banks.  Low-sailing  clouds  drifted  seaward, 
and  flights  of  waterfowl  passed  us  with  rushing  wings,  but 
voiceless,  as  if  awed  into  silence  by  the  vast  dreariness  of 
the  scenery.  Only  the  night-heron  croaked  in  the  distant 
swamp,  and  from  near  and  far,  from  the  seaweed  shallows 
on  our  lee  and  the  mist-shrouded  fens  of  the  Gulf-islands, 
came  the  hoarse  bark  of  the  coast-alligators.  In  the  night- 
time especially  their  deep-mouthed  groans  sound  in  your 
ears  with  a  direful  significance,  and  I  believe  that  even  the 
stolid  sailors  shared  our  feeling  of  relief  when  the  signal- 
lights  of  Carmen  harbor  gleamed  through  the  morning  mist 


288 


SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 


and  the  shrill  crowing  of  a  cock  announced  the  vicinity  of 
human  habitations.  An  uninhabited  wilderness  may  be 
sublime  and  even  attractive  :  an  uninhabitable  one  is  always 

a. 

dismal. 

Carmen  harbor,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sumasinta,  is  a  veri- 
table city  of  the  sea,  rising  from  a  substructure  of  trestle- 


CARMEN    HARBOR. 


platforms,  pontoon-bridges,  and  anchored  hulls,  and  the 
sluggish  canal  which  forms  the  principal  street  reminded 
me  of  Tasso's  description  of  the  Porto  di  Brondolo  and  its 
sombre  river : 

Corre  la  Brenta  al  mar,  tacita  e  bruna, 

a  town  of  swaying  wharves  and  bilge-water  odors.  There 
is  a  navy-yard  here,  and  the  harbor  is  the  halfway  station  of 
the  Vera  Cruz  and  Sisal  packets.  Our  captain  hinted  that 
the  tide  would  probably  delay  us  for  a  couple  of  hours,  but  a 
private  interview  with  his  clerk  seemed  to  have  oiled  the 
angry  billows,  for  we  contrived  to  reach  our  pier  half  an 
hour  before  the  arrival  of  the  east-bound  steamer. 

In  spite  of  mosquitoes  and  mud-banks,  long  delays  and 
laconic  dinners,  I  think  that  a  trip   from  San   Carlos  to 


THE  DELTA    OF   THE   SUMASINTA   RIVER.        289 

Carmen  will  reward  the  enterprise  of  travellers  wiio  do  not 
judge  the  byways  of  our  continent  by  Mr.  Baedeker's  stand- 
ards. The  littoral  forests  of  the  upper  river  are  not 
essentially  different  from  those  of  the  northern  Gulf-coast, 
but  at  the  lower  landing  the  explorer  may  study  Nature  in 
her  strangest  forms,  and  the  inaccessible  thickets  beyond  can 
at  least  teach  him  one  oft-forgotten  truth, — namely,  tiiat  the 
earth  was  not  made  exclusively  for  the  sake  of  man. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

YUCATAN, 

Why  left  they  this  eternal  home  of  Summer, 

To  seek  a  land  whose  flowers  must  yearly  die? — Silvio  Pellico. 

Fifty  leagues  east  of  Vera  Cruz  the  passengers  of  a 
homebound  French  steamer  sight  land  again :  first,  the 
square-cut  ridge  of  a  coast-range  that  rises  like  a  wall 
above  the  edge  of  the  northern  sky,  and  soon  after  the 
jagged  peaks  of  an  inland  sierra  far  behind  the  southern 
horizon  of  a  blue-green  archipelago  of  coast  islands. 
Viewed  from  a  sufficient  elevation,  the  eastern  gates  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  would  resemble  the  projecting  piers  of  a 
double  breakwater  at  the  entrance  of  a  fortified  harbor,  and 
the  inland  scenery  north  and  south  would  make  it  difficult 
to  distinguish  the  highlands  of  Cuba  from  those  of  Central 
Yucatan.  Their  confronting  shores,  however,  would  present 
the  striking  contrast  of  a  rock-bound  coast  with  the  jungles 
of  a  broad  and  swampy  estuary ;  and  this  contrast  has 
probably  decided  the  different  destinies  of  the  two  countries. 
The  island  with  its  inviting  harbors  has  attracted  a  contin- 
ual swarm  of  Spanish  conquerors  and  colonists,  while  the 
swamp-protected  peninsula  enjoyed  the  same  immunity 
from  town-and-tree-destroying  invaders  which  has  preserved 
the  forests  and  ancient  cities  of  Siam. 

Even  the  fanatical  iconoclasts  who  transformed  the  rest 
290 


YUCATAN.  291 

of  New  Spain  after  the  image  of  the  inother-coiinti-y  have 
spared  tlie  inonuments  of  Ciiichen  and  Uxnial,  and  tlie 
western  pueblos  of  the  Mayos  belong  to  the  few  tribes  of 
the  aboriginal  population  whose  riglits  have  to  some  degree 
been  respected  by  tiieir  Caucasian  conquerors.  Since  the 
expulsion  of  the  Spaniards  in  1821  these  pueblos  have 
thrice  seceded  from  the  Mexican  confederation,  and  the  last 
time  (1846—52)  maintained  their  independence  for  nearly 
seven  years,  and  only  rejoined  the  union  on  terms  which  the 
Mexican  dictators  have  rarely  ventured  to  violate.  The 
presence  of  a  French  armada  in  the  Bay  of  Sisal  overawed 
them  for  a  few  years,  but  after  the  restoration  the  authority 
of  the  governor  was  openly  defied,  and  in  1874  I  was  sent 
to  Campeche  as  a  member  of  President  Lerdo's  mision  de 
reforma,  a  commission  of  inquiry  which  was  to  confer  with 
the  delegates  of  the  different  pueblos  with  a  view  of  ascer- 
taining the  cause  of  their  chronic  discontent. 

At  the  suggestion  of  the  new  governor  the  commission 
was  divided,  and  as  the  race-prejudices  of  my  medical  col- 
league made  him  thoroughly  indifferent  to  tlie  result  of  the 
expedition,  I  was  offered  the  choice  between  the  eastern 
mountain-districts  and  the  southwestern  lowlands  between 
Campeche  and  the  Sierra  de  Belize.  I  decided  for  the 
western  or  lowland  region,  partly  for  the  sake  of  the  famous 
ruins,  which  might  be  reached  by  a  short  detour  from  our 
prescribed  route,  but  chiefly  in  the  hoj)e  of  collecting  data 
for  the  solution  of  a  mystery  which  gives  a  special  interest 
to  the  ethnological  problems  of  our  southern  continent, — 
viz.,  the  enigma  of  the  almost  universal  degeneration  of 
our  race  in  the  tropical  latitudes. 

Is  there  any  objective  necessity  for  it  ?  Are  snowstorms 
and  long  winter  nights  really  essential  conditions  of  our 
well-being  ?     In  spite  of  a  staggering  array  of  ex  post  facto 


292  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

arguments,  our  instinct  revolts  at  the  idea  that  perennial 
fruits  and  flowers  should  be  incompatible  with  human  hap- 
piness. The  analogy  of  the  oldest  and  youngest,  highest 
and  lowest,  forms  of  animated  Nature  proclaims  the  fact 
that  light  and  warmth  are  the  chief  sources  of  all  organic 
prosperity.  In  the  tropics  the  cereals  of  the  North  reappear 
as  palms,  ferns  as  fern-trees,  woodbines  as  giant  creepers ; 
the  type  of  the  wild-cat  develops  a  tiger,  of  the  adder  a 
boa,  of  the  lizard  a  crocodile,  of  the  sand-spider  a  tarantula : 
the  size,  the  strength,  the  beauty  and  longevity  of  plants 
and  animals  are  found  to  increase  as  we  ap])roach  the  equa- 
tor, and  none  of  them  seem  the  better  for  having  to  wring 
subsistence  from  a  frozen  soil.  Does  man  alone  make  an 
exception  ?  Or  are  we  rather  justified  in  suspecting  the 
agency  of  abnormal  circumstances, — of  baneful  habits  whose 
effects  require  the  influence  of  cold  air  as  an  antidote  ?  The 
question,  methinks,  deserves  a  share  of  the  attention  which 
is  still  wasted  on  archaeological  squabbles,  for  its  solution 
would  elucidate  the  oldest  and  darkest  of  all  biological 
problems.  At  present  we  must  admit  that  the  ruling  races 
of  the  earth  have  lost — or  rather  voluntarily  abandoned — 
their  Southern  garden-home,  though  its  climate  was  not 
always  unfavorable  to  the  growth  of  the  manly  and  indus- 
trial virtues. 

Uxmal  is  the  American  Nineveh,  and  in  Yucatan  at  least 
the  decay  of  an  ancient  civilization  cannot  be  explained  by 
the  exhaustion  of  the  soil.  The  vegetation  of  the  riparial 
forests  is  rankly,  unmanageably  exuberant,  the  ruins  of  the 
hill-country  are  covered  with  tanglewood  as  the  monuments 
of  Syria  with  sand,  and  the  fruit-crop  of  a  large  variety 
of  indigenous  trees  is  absolutely  perennial. 

On  our  return  from  Merida  we  stopped  at  the  Bailos  de 
San   Joaquin,   and  the   proprietor  of  the  mineral  springs 


I 


YUCATAN.  293 

treated  us  to  a  liincli  of  a])ricots  and  datiles  frescos — new 
dates — whose  flavor  might  have  satisfied  an  emir  of  Bele- 
duljerid.  The  hedges  were  still  full  of  wild  oranges,  and 
the  storekeejier  of  the  hacienda  had  bananas,  sweet  oranges, 
and  fresh  figs  for  sale  at  a  season  of  the  year  when  our  stores 
of  domestic  fruits  have  mostly  dwindled  to  frozen  crab- 
apples.  Yucatan  is  famous  for  its  semi-annual  banana- 
crops,  and  the  second  or  winter  harvest  is  often  more 
abundant  than  the  first  if  the  rainy  season  ends  before 
the  beginning  of  November. 

Seven  miles  south  of  San  Joaquin  the  road  and  our  tropa 
divided :  Lieutenant  Perez  and  un  American  teamster,  the 
outrider  of  our  cavalcade,  agreed  to  accompany  rae  to 
Uxmal,  while  the  rest  continued  their  way  to  Campeche, 
where  the  Christmas  and  New  Year's  festivities  promised 
abundant  pastime  till  after  the  return  of  our  colleagues 
from  the  eastern  circuit.  Ijieutenant  Perez,  the  adjutant 
of  the  military  commissioner,  was  a  Cuban  refugee,  who 
seemed  to  have  forgiven  and  forgotten  the  wrongs  of  the 
isla  hei'oica,  though  a  Spanish  sabre  had  left  an  indelible 
memento  on  his  face;  while  Nick  Fisher,  our  guide,  who 
had  lost  a  team  of  mules  and  a  "  valuable  buck  iii":";er"  at 
Murfreesboro',  was  still  very  severe  on  the  Abolitionists. 
He  had  followed  Kirby  Smith  to  Matamoras,  where  he  had 
found  employment  in  an  American  restaurant,  and,  after  try- 
ing his  luck  in  various  Mexican  seaports,  had  finally  strayed 
to  Sisal  and  exchanged  the  spit  for  a  muleteer's  goad, — vulg., 
"  caracho-pole," — having  found  that  the  close  resemblance 
of  the  climate  to  that  of  an  unmentionable  region  would  be 
completed  by  a  kitchen-fire.  In  less  than  five  years  he  had 
become  personally  acquainted  with  every  teamster  and 
tavern-keeper  in  Western  Yiicat;ui,  and  had  visited  LTxmal 
thrice  and  Chichen  sixteen  times,  mostly  as  guide  to  Euro- 

19 


294  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

pean  or  Yankee  excursion-parties.  El  Pecador — the  Sinner 
— his  comrades  called  liim,  a  nickname  which  had  originated 
in  his  own  unlucky  attempt  at  translating  his  patronymic, 
but  which  in  the  eyes  of  the  natives  might  derive  addi- 
tional point  from  his  persistent  and  undisguised  heresy. 

Southeast  of  San  Joaquin  extends  a  chain  of  sand-hills 
which  we  hoped  to  cross  during  the  cool  of  the  forenoon, 
but  at  a  ford  of  the  Rio  Becal,  hardly  three  miles  from  the 
cross-roads,  we  were  detained  for  nearly  two  hours  by  the 
senseless  obstinacy  of  my  companion's  mule,  which  waded 
the  deepest  part  of  the  river  with  unflinching  steadiness, 
and  then  refused  to  proceed  through  the  shallow  water  near 
the  opposite  bank.  We  had  to  return  to  the  western  shore 
and  distribute  the  lieutenant  and  his  baggage  among  the 
sensible  Cjuadrupeds ;  but  the  stubborn  brute,  though  now 
unloaded  and  unsaddled,  declined  to  make  any  concessions 
in  return,  till  the  Pecador,  losing  his  patience,  tied  her  legs 
crossways,  and,  after  felling  her  to  the  ground,  hitched  the 
entire  mukida  to  their  fallen  sister  and  dragged  her  across 
like  a  carcass  of  beef.  Priessnitz,  the  founder  of  hydro- 
pathy, holds  that  a  bath,  in  order  to  be  a  perfect  tonic, 
ought  to  be  followed  by  a  haut-reiz,  a  skin-stimulus ;  and 
the  correctness  of  his  view  was  triumphantly  illustrated  by 
the  application  of  a  double-twisted  cowhide  after  we  got 
our  patient  to  terra  firma.  The  bland  alacrity  of  that  mule 
during  the  remainder  of  the  trip  was  something  unprece- 
dented in  the  experience  of  her  owner. 

We  had  to  face  the  arenal  in  midafternoon  now,  but  the 
"  sand-region"  proved  better  than  its  name :  the  plateaus 
were  tufted  with  mimosas  and  tamarisks,  and  in  the  ravines 
feather-willows  and  bulrushes  indicated  the  presence  of 
moisture.  A  descent  of  three  hours  brought  us  back  to 
the  rolling  woodland  of  the  vega,  where  furlongs  and  miles 


YUCATAN.  295 

of  our  road  were  shaded  by  dark-green  euphorbias,  sloth- 
trees,  and  open  groves  of  afgodoncnia  {Hibi.scus  odonitas), 
whose  cotton-like  blossoms  still  covered  the  lower  branches, 
while  the  tree-tops  near  and  far  were  festooned  with  the 
flaming  flowers  of  a  variety  of  epiphytes,  yellow  bromelias, 
and  pale-red  Amphilidic  or  fire-orchids.  In  Cuba  and  the 
littoral  forests  of  Northern  Mexico  the  new  year's  vege- 
tation is  characterized  by  a  more  vivid  green  and  the  ab- 
sence of  fruits  and  full-blown  flowers,  which  have  been 
stripped  by  the  storms  of  the  rainy  season,  but  in  Yucatan 
even  the  October  showers  alternate  with  weeks  of  cloudless 
and  intensely  warm  weather,  and  the  cool  season — Novem- 
ber to  February — deserves  that  name  only  comparatively, 
the  noon  temperature  during  the  Christmas  week  rising 
frequently  to  105°  Fahrenheit  in  the  shade.  As  the  cli- 
mate of  the  Central  American  highlands  resembles  an  ever- 
lasting spring,  that  of  Yucatan  may  be  called  a  perpetual 
midsuiumer, — sunny,  agreeable  mornings,  and  sultry,  or 
else  dry,  clear,  and  superheated  afternoons.  If  the  foreign 
residents  of  the  coast-towns  bewail  the  perennial  excess  of 
caloric,  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  wild  interior  are  certainly 
not  the  worse  for  it.  The  first  Spanish  settlers  cleared  large 
tracts  of  ground  for  the  cultivation  of  henequen,  or  Sisal 
hemp,  and  after  exhausting  the  soil  by  a  succession  of  uni- 
form crops  abandoned  their  plantations  as  barren  sand- 
fields, — arenals  as  they  are  here  called, — and  on  these  ijar- 
rens,  dusty  limestone  plateaus  some  of  them,  the  noontide 
heat  is  often  almost  suffocating;  but  the  river-bottoms  and 
the  virgin  woods  of  the  southwestern  lowlands  flourish 
in  an  evergreen  luxuriance  which  refutes  the  widespread 
opinion  that  heat  per  se  is  a  characteristic  concomitant  or 
a  cause  of  aridity.  The  highlands  of  Northern  Tartary 
rival  those  of  Dakota  in  barrennesses  well  as  in  tlie  severitv 


296  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

of  their  winter  climate,  while  the  equator  in  its  range 
through  two  continents  and  three  large  islands  does  not 
touch  a  single  desert  nor  any  country  that  ever  suffered 
from  a  scarcity  of  water.  Nor  can  sand-wastes  be  said  to 
impair  the  fertility  of  adjacent  woodlands :  on  the  contrary, 
the  forest  encroaches  upon  the  desert;  and  it  is  my  delib- 
erate opinion  that  if  Asia  and  Africa  could  be  delivered 
from  the  tree-destroying  animal  miscalled  Homo  sapiens, 
and  left  in  the  healing  hands  of  Nature  for  half  a  millen- 
nium, the  spread  of  arboreal  vegetation  would  restore  the 
lost  Eastern  Paradise  to  its  pristine  glory.  In  torrid  Yu- 
catan hundreds  of  square  miles  have  thus  reclaimed  them- 
selves, and  the  arenals  of  Belonchen  and  Macoba,  having 
been  left  to  their  fate  three  or  four  generations  ago,  are  now 
covered  with  a  tall  second  growth  of  timber  trees. 

With  the  exception  of  the  nomadic  Tabascanos,  the  in- 
habitants of  Yucatan  are  chiefly  agricultural,  and  their  non- 
carnivorous  habits  manifest  themselves  in  the  remarkable 
tameness  of  birds  and  smaller  quadru])eds.  Bushcocks  and 
quails  were  dodging  around  in  the  w^eeds  almost  under  the 
hoofs  of  our  mules,  and  only  the  larger  abutardas,  a  species 
of  bustard  {Otis  tarda),  deigned  to  take  wing  for  a  moment 
when  we  approached  their  favorite  haunts  in  the  tall  grass 
of  the  hibiscus-groves.  A  graceful  bird  of  the  heron  kind 
was  cleaning  his  pearl-gray  plumage  in  our  next  neighbor- 
hood when  we  halted  at  a  little  creek  for  the  benefit  of  our 
mulada,  and  two  black  squirrels  kept  chasing  each  other 
round  and  round  a  hollow  fig-tree  whose  gigantic  branches 
overshadowed  the  dell  of  the  streamlet  from  bank  to  bank. 
High  overhead  a  pair  of  parrots  were  fluttering  about  the 
tree-top  with  frightened  screams,  but  not  on  our  account ;  a 
tree-snake  had  made  its  way  to  a  branch  immediately  above 
their  hollow  nest,  and  they  foresaw  the  moment  when  the 


i 


YUCATAN. 


297 


safety  of  their  young  would  depend  on  the  strength   of 
their  untried  wings. 


■  SAUVE    QUI    PEUT." 


"  Look  here !"  said  the  lieutenant :  "  what  do  you  call 
that,  close  to  the  triple  fork  up  there  ?  It's  too  large  for  a 
squirrel:  it  must  be  some  kind  of  black  tree-bird.  Do 
you  see  it  moving?" 

Stepping  back,  I  distinguished  a  round  protuberance  that 
might  be  an  excrescence  of  the  tree  or  the  rump  of  a  half- 
hidden  animal.  With  the  exception  of  the  wedge-tailed 
woodpecker,  birds  do  not  cling  to  the  main  stem  of  a  tree. 
It  must  be  a  raccoon  or  a  cluster  of  bats,  I  thought. 

"I  see  it  plainly  now,"  said  the  guide:  "  it's  a  Aor^u'- 
guero'^  (taraandua,  or  little  ant-bear).  ''  lie's  picking  ants 
out  of  that  hollow  branch." 


298  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"  No,  no,"  insisted  the  lieutenant :  "  it  must  be  a  bird. 
A  hormiguero  is  larger,  and  would  show  his  long  tail." 

"  He'll  show  it  mighty  quick  if  you  will  lend  rae  that 
rifle  for  a  moment.     Thank  you. —  Queda,  Paquita!" 

The  mule  stood  stock-still,  but  somehow  the  shot  went 
a  trifle  too  high,  tearing  the  bark  about  an  inch  above  the 
nose  of  the  doubtful  entity. 

"  Yes,  you  are  right :  I  see  his  long  snout  now,"  said 
Don  Perez.     "You  scared  him,  anyhow." 

The  report  and  the  bark-explosion  under  his  nose  had 
caused  the  ant-bear  to  clasp  the  tree  with  a  convulsive  grip, 
but  in  a  shock  of  surprise  rather  than  of  fear.  Unconscious 
of  any  offence  against  mankind  in  general  and  the  specimens 
present  in  particular,  he  failed  to  realize  the  fell  significance 
of  the  phenomenon,  and,  after  sniffing  and  squinting  around 
the  bullet-hole,  turned  his  head  and  eyed  us  in  a  way  that 
seemed  to  solicit  a  clearer  statement  of  our  intentions.  Was 
it  a  practical  joke,  or  had  we  tried  to  furnish  him  a  busi- 
ness-opening to  the  ant-colonies  of  the  interior  tree?  The 
next  second  might  have  solved  his  doubts,  but  better  coun- 
sels prevailed,  and  we  left  him  hugging  the  tree  and  his 
charitable  illusion. 

Riding  slowly  along  the  brink  of  a  deep  gully  in  the 
hope  of  finding  a  suitable  camping-place,  we  saw  a  thick 
yellow  smoke  rising  from  a  clumj)  of  taxus-trees  about  a 
mile  farther  down,  and  I  thought  I  heard  the  peculiar  howl- 
ing bark  of  an  Indian  dog.. 

"  There  are  no  ranchos  hereabouts,"  said  the  guide  :  "  it 
must  be  a  gypsy-camp,  wandering  Indians, — Tabascanos, 
as  they  call  them.  I'll  bet  my  mule  that  we  shall  find 
a  spring  or  something  in  that  hollow :  those  chaps  have  a 
good  nose  for  drinking-water." 

After  inspecting  the  ravine  near  the  camp  and  finding 


YUCATAN.  299 

our  hopes  of  water  abundantly  realized,  we  decided  to 
"ranch"  a  little  farther  down  in  a  grove  of  wild  fig-trees 
{Adansonki),  whose  leafy  roof  in  case  of  rain  would  pro- 
tect us  against  all  but  the  heaviest  showers,  and  certainly 
intercept  every  drop  of  dew.  Like  the  elm  in  the  North, 
the  Adansonia  is  here  the  shade-tree  by  excellence,  and  can 
dispute  the  prize  of  beauty  and  usefulness  with  any  palm. 
The  figs  of  the  wild  tree  are  insipid,  being  leathery,  dry, 
and  somewhat  deficient  in  saccharine  elements,  but  they 
make  excellent  mast,  and  a  single  full-grown  higucra  sheds 
yearly  from  eight  hundred  to  twelve  hundred  bushels  of 
its  small  grayish-green  fruit,  besides  the  large  quantities 
eaten  by  tree-rats,  monkeys,  and  birds. 

We  had  blankets  enough  to  dispense  with  a  fire,  and 
could  enjoy  the  full  luxury  of  the  gradual  decrease  of 
caloric  as  the  night  wind  swelled  from  an  intermittent 
afflatus  to  a  steady  breeze.  Bats,  night-cicadas,  and  moths 
fluttered  around  our  heads,  but  no  mosquitoes:  the  high- 
lands of  Central  Yucatan  offer  no  congenial  habitat  to  the 
miasma-loving  pests.  Heat  alone  cannot  breed  gnats,  any 
more  than  it  can  raise  clouds  from  an  arid  soil.  The  mos- 
quito is  not  a  native  of  any  special  latitude :  his  home  is 
wherever  the  sun  shines  on  a  mixture  of  stagnant  water  and 
decaying  vegetable  matter.  Like  watering-place  doctors, 
the  gnats  of  the  northern  swamps  have  to  suspend  business 
during  the  frost  season,  but  they  make  up  for  lost  time : 
the  summer-garden  of  Beelzebub,  the  great  mass-meeting 
ground  of  all  his  fly-fiends,  is  not  in  the  jungles  of  the 
Punjaub  nor  in  the  fens  of  the  lower  Senegal,  but  on  the 
beaver-meadows  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  Michigan,  where 
hunters  and  woodchoppers  have  to  wear  gauze  veils  in 
July,  though  the  winter  temperature  sinks  fortv  degrees 
below  zero. 


300  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

"  Hadn't  we  better  sleep  by  reliefs  ?"  I  heard  the  lieu- 
tenant say  when  my  eyes  had  already  closed  business  for 
that  day.  "  This  camp  needs  a  sentry :  those  red  devils  are 
prowling  around  our  mules,  if  I  am  not  much  mistaken. 
Yes,  there  are  two  or  three  of  them  sneaking  around  the 
trees  back  there,"  said  he  after  a  while.  "Listen  !  you  can 
hear  them  talking.  I  saw  one  quite  plainly  a  while  ago 
with  something  like  a  stick  or  a  bow  in  his  hand." 

"I'm  going  to  find  out  what  they  want,"  said  the  guide, 
rising  from  his  couch ;  "  but  our  mules  are  all  right,  you 
may  depend  on  that.  The  Tabascanos  have  no  use  for 
them :  they  are  tramp- Indians — not  a  cavalryman  in  the 
tribe." 

The  recon  noissance  was  brief  and  satisfactory.  "  I  thought 
so,"  said  he :  "  the  poor  devils  are  hunting  ccwhiporras" 
(frugivorous  bats) :  "they  swarm  around  fig-trees  after  dark. 
One  of  those  chaps  has  got  four  of  them  already,  and  would 
have  his  bag  full,  he  says,  if  he  hadn't  been  afraid  to  dis- 
turb the  caballeros.  They  will  soon  have  enough,  anyhow: 
that's  what  they  built  that  fire  for." 

"  Por  Dios !  to  eat  them  ?" 

"  Of  course  they  will :  the  Tabascanos  will  eat  grubs  and 
caterpillars,  and  prefer  them  to  the  best  fruit  in  America. 
They  have  a  nickname  for  the  Yucatan  Indians  that  means 
monomozos"  (monkey-boys),  "  because  our  red-skins  live  on 
monkey-food, — bananas  and  pineapples,  and  such-like." 

Before  we  broke  camp  the  next  morning  the  Tabascanos 
passed  us  in  single  file,  carrying  bundles  of  dried  meat  and 
household  stuff,  on  their  way  to  the  hunting-grounds  of 
the  Rio  Belize.  Males  as  well  as  females  wore  a  full  head 
of  hair,  divided  in  three  or  four  tails  that  hung  down  to 
their  girdles  or  fluttered  in  the  breeze  like  the  standard  of 
a  capitan  pasha.     Prejudice  aside,  it  does  not  look  bad  if 


VUCATAN. 


301 


the  hair  is  kept  well  back,  and  is  perliaps  the  best  head- 
gear in  a  tropical  climate,  since  it  keeps  the  scalp  cool  by 
evaporating  the  perspiration,  which  is  condensed  or  checked 
under  an  air-tight  hat. 


TABASCANO    INDIANS. 


After  breasting  a  steep  bluff  we  kept  along  the  ridge  of 
the  Cerro  de  Macoba,  the  backbone  of  Central  Yucatan,  a 
hill-chain  of  calcareous  spar  with  deep  woodUmds  on  either 
side.  The  limestone-mounds  before  us  enclosed  broad 
areuals  entirely  devoid  of  vegetation,  and  long  before  noon 
the  air  became  hazy  and  tremulous  with  heat,  the  outline 
of  the  eastern  horizon  grew  indistinct,  and  the  large  barrens 


302  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

ahead  glittered  now  and  tlien  with  the  wavy  water-hues  of 
a  transient  mirage. 

El  Pecador  had  led  the  way  in  silence  for  a  couple  of 
miles,  when  he  drew  rein  in  the  chequered  shade  of  a  mi- 
mosa-tree and  came  to  a  full  right  about.  "  Just  turn  your 
head  this  way,  doctor,"  said  he, — "  eastward,  or  east  by 
northeast,  I  should  say.     Don't  you  smell  something?" 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?" 

"  Something  like  plum-pudding,  I  mean.  Do  you  know 
what  day  this  is?" 

"  What  day  of  the  month  ?  Last  Monday  was  the 
twenty-first —  Why,  you  are  right:  this  is  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  December,  Christmas  Eve  and  Plum-pudding 
Night !     What  shall  we  do  about  it  ?" 

"I'll  tell  you  what  we  can  do.  There  is  a  string  of 
ranchos  on  the  Rio  de  Belonchen,  about  six  leagues  ahead, 
where  we  can  buy  all  the  material  for  a  stunning  Christmas 
stew, — beans,  bacon,  potatoes,  eggs  and  all.  Now,  I  know 
a  fine  spring  in  the  river-bottom,  with  plenty  of  shade, 
where  we  could  make  a  ni^ht  of  it  if  the  gentlemen  will 
agree  to  let  their  dinner  go.  We  can  reach  the  river  at 
four  o'clock  if  we  keep  on  at  a  deceut  trot." 

The  motion  was  carried  by  acclamation,  and  our  mules 
went  ahead  as  if  they  sniffed  the  river  from  afar,  while  Si- 
raoncito,  our  groom,  wore  a  six-inch  grin  reflecting  visions 
of  garbanzas  con  jamon  y  chill  Colorado.  Our  programme 
de  cuisine  was  settled  in  all  its  details  when  we  dismounted 
in  a  shady  dell  in  the  Belonchen  Valley :  Don  Perez  was 
to  accompany  me  on  a  fuel-forage  in  the  lower  river-bottom, 
the  Pecador  to  canvass  the  ranchos  with  a  pocketful  of  cop- 
pers and  a  couple  of  bags,  and  the  mozo  undertook  to  effect 
the  loan  of  a  large  olla,  or  earthen  pot,  which  he  remem- 
bered to  have  seen  at  the  rancho  of  an  acquaintance. 


YUCATAN.  303 

The  Pecador  returned  last,  hut  his  efforts  liad  bceu  ex- 
ceediugly  productive, — too  much  so,  in  fact,  for  the  cajiacity 
of  tlie  olla,  wliich  was  medium-sized  and  rather  too  Hat  lor 
a  bhizing  fire.  Still,  a  two-gallon  dosis  of  browu  beans 
and  yams,  with  eggs,  lard,  and  onions,  would  meet  all  im- 
mediate wants,  and  the  bliss  of  anticipation  had  reconciled 
us  to  the  imperfection  of  earthly  things  in  general  when 
we  lifted  the  earthen  pot  from  the  ashes.  While  the  mess 
cooled  oif  we  decided  to  collect  a  dessert  of  yellow  grapes 
from  the  vine-mantled  trees  in  the  river-bottom,  and  all 
hands  were  set  to  forage,  the  mozo  being  left  to  guard  the 
palladium  and  get  the  dishes  ready.  I  had  nearly  filled 
my  hat  with  the  contributions  of  a  single  sycamore-tree 
when  I  heard  a  loud  scream  from  the  direction  of  the 
spring,  and  my  blood  ran  cold  with  a  horrible  misgiving 
even  before  I  had  understood  the  meaning  of  the  shrieks 
which  were  soon  echoed  from  the  lower  end  of  the  dell : 
"  El  cochino !  the  hog !  the  hog !  Santissima  !  she's  upset 
the  pot !   Transo  la  olla  !  there  goes  our  supper !" 

"  Sic  transit  gloria  !"  Overpoweringly  tragic,  but  ti-ue. 
A  big  sow,  attracted  by  the  savory  steam,  had  strolled  up 
from  the  canebrake,  and  while  the  mozo  M'as  filling  a  tin  jiail 
at  the  spring  she  had  made  a  rush  for  the  main  stake,  upset 
the  olla,  and  spilt  its  contents  on  the  ash-strewn  ground. 

We  stood  around  in  that  deepest  sorrow  which  desj)airs 
to  find  relief  in  words,  when  the  lieutenant  arrived  froni 
the  farther  end  of  the  grove,  his  eyes  dilated  with  terror, 
but  not  realizing  at  first  sight  the  full  extent  of  our  bereave- 
ment. "Oh,  the  brute!  What!"  seeing  the  empty  pot, 
"  nothing  rescued,  nothing  at  all?  upset  the  kettle  altogether? 
Quarenta  mil  car axos  del  vivo — "  I  nuist  elide  the  climax 
of  the  anathema. 

"There  now!"  laughed  the  Pecador:  "isn't  it  clear  that 


304  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

a  man  cannot  get  along  in  this  country  without  the  lengua 
Castellana  f  I  should  like  to  know  what  other  language 
could  have  done  justice  to  an  occasion  like  this?" 

"  Por  amor  de  los  santos,  lend  me  your  shot-gun,  Don 
Felix!"  whim[)ered  the  mozo:  "  we  have  to  get  even  with 
that  brute.  Thank  you.  I'll  run  her  down,  if  it  takes  me 
all  night.     Here — " 

But  in  the  next  moment  the  Pecador  had  him  by  the 
shoulder :  "  Hold  on  there !  Put  that  gun  down,  young 
man.  I  hope  that  none  of  us  will  ever  see  another  Christ- 
mas Day  if  that  sow  is  going  to  get  off  with  a  spoonful  of 
small  shot.  I'll  make  her  pay  the  full  value  of  that 
su])per." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do?     Roast  her  alive?" 

''Never  you  mind.  I'll  make  it  hotter  for  her  than  any 
fire  this  side  of  Halifax.     Hand  me  that  cowhide." 

He  crushed  his  hat  down,  bridled  his  beast  with  a  hitch 
of  the  halter,  and  galloped  away  in  pursuit  of  the  fugitive 
sow,  whose  career  had  subsided  into  a  lazy  trot  as  she  neared 
the  river-bank.  She  allowed  him  to  approach  within  a 
hundred  yards  before  she  looked  round,  but,  finding  he  was 
on  her  traces,  she  gathered  herself  up  and  dashed  away  at 
full  speed  along  the  shore  of  the  stream.  He  overtook  her 
at  the  mouth  of  a  little  influent,  and  if  grief  interferes  with 
eupepsia  I  do  not  think  that  hog  ever  digested  its  best 
supper. 

Our  loss,  after  all,  was  chiefly  one  of  time :  beans,  lard, 
and  eggs  enough  were  left  to  fill  the  olla  once  more,  and 
the  success  of  our  grape-forage  could  assuage  our  chagrin 
at  the  absence  of  yams.  Soon  after  sunset  the  vibratory 
boom  of  a  kettledrum  sounded  across  the  valley:  the  In- 
dians of  the  river-ranchos  were  going  to  celebrate  the  Holy 
Night  with  a  gran  funcioii  of  bonfires,  music,  and  chants, — 


rUCATAN. 

perhaps  an  echo 
of  the  old  Mexi- 
can Sun-festivals, 
which  ushered  in 
the  winter  solstice 
for  centuries  be- 
fore the  golden 
astrura  of  the 
teocallis  was  su- 
perseded by  the 
wooden  cross.  But 
the  original  signifi- 
cance of  these  beal- 
fires  has  long  been 
forgotten  :  what 
the  troopers  of  Gri- 
jalvaand  Montejo 
attempted  in  vain 
the  legionaries  of 
St.  Francis  have 
thorough  ly  accom- 
plished. From  Si- 
sal to  Cape  Vigia 
the  agricultural 
Yucatecos  have 
accepted  the  yoke 
of  the  cross,  and 
their  intolerant 
treatment  of  the 
pagan  Us  tecs  and 
Tabascanos  has 
frequently      been  lynching  a  i.unch-fiend. 

the  cause  of  iuter-Indian  wars  which  enabled  the  Caucasians 


306  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

to  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  spite  of  their  numerical 
insignificance.  At  present  the  resistance  of  the  Gentiles  has 
almost  entirely  ceased,  and  local  insurrections  are  promptly 
suppressed  by  the  orthodox  natives  without  the  assistance 
of  the  general  government.  In  the  district  of  Izamal  and 
Valladolid  there  are  Indian  euros  and  Indian  inquisitors 
who  enforce  the  statutes  of  the  Church  with  the  proverbial 
zeal  of  new  converts,  and  have  aided  the  Franciscan  mission- 
aries by  translating  portions  of  the  Bible  into  the  vernacu- 
lar of  their  respective  tribes,  though  the  ostensible  purpose 
of  the  gospel  has  hardly  been  furthered  by  the  barbarous 
methods  of  their  propaganda.  In  many  of  the  larger  pueblos 
the  assessment  of  tithes  and  school-taxes  is  farmed  out  to 
Indian  coledores,  who  do  not  hesitate  to  sequester  the  house- 
hold valuables  of  defaulting  scef)tics,  and  secure  the  con- 
nivance of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  by  reclaiming  apos- 
tates and  deserters  without  extra  charge.  On  the  upper 
Belize  the  Ustec  rancheros  used  to  evade  the  wrath  of  their 
spiritual  guardians  by  taking  en  masse  to  the  woods  and 
rocks,  but  after  the  introduction  of  West  Indian  bloodhounds 
by  the\r  fermeir-gin^al  the  danger  of  unbelief  has  ceased  to 
be  a  controverted  dogma.  The  Voz  de  3Iexico  mentions  a 
"collector"  of  El  Cayo  so  famous  for  his  skill  in  reclaiming 
dissenters  that  in  the  winter  of  1873  he  was  sent  to  the  Rio 
Zelades,  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  where  the  infidels 
were  openly  defying  their  pastor,  and  declined  to  marry  or 
be  given  in  marriage  after  the  rite  of  an  infallibly  expensive 
Church.  The  collector  went  down  with  two  assistants  and 
a  picked  pack  of  his  four-legged  propagandists,  and  was 
soon  able  to  report  a  rousing  revival. 

Passing  through  the  rancheria  the  next  morning,  we  saw 
a  characteristic  specimen  of  the  "colored  curate"  {cura 
prieto),  as  the  Yucatecos  call  their  indigenous   clerics, — a 


YUCATAN. 


307 


fat,  powerful  mestizo,  who 
strutted  at  tJic  head  of  the 
procession  under  the  canopy 
of  a  long-handled  cotton  umbrella  upheld  by  his  acolyte. 
He  carried  a  Bible  and  a  little  bunch  of  bulrushes,  prob- 
ably a  sort  of  aspersory.  Our  mozo  knew  him  personally, 
and  described  him  as  a  severe  disciplinarian  who  had  been 
known  to  exact  a  fee  of  "  cien  fanegas"  (about  sixty  bushels) 
of  maize  for  baptizing  an  illegitimate  papoose.     On  taking 


308 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


holy   orders  he  had  also  assumed   the  patronymic  of   his 
defunct  Caucasian  predecessor,  Pedro  Santerra,  whom  he 


DON    PEDRO    SANTO. 


imitated  in  his  habit  of  spicing  his  sermons  with  Spanish 
sesquipedalities.  "  Don  Pedro  Santo"  his  unregenerate 
neighbors  used  to  call  him. 

Half  a  league  southeast  of  the  rancheria  we  reached  the 
caraino  real  from  Campeche  to  Uxmal,  and  by  an  easy 
ascent  of  seven  miles  the  ridge  of  the  Cerro  de  Macoba, 
here  the  watershed  between  the  Gulf  and  the  Caribbean 
Sea.     In  the  far  southeast  we  had  a  glimpse  of  the  Belize 


YUCATAN.  309 

coast-jungles  now  and  then,  a  light-blue  expanse  spangled 
with  water-bright  streaks  and  dots;  nearer  by,  the  valley 
of  the  Rio  Bacala,  winding  between  densely-wooded  hills; 
and  on  our  left,  theCerrodelzamal,  whose  plateau  abounds 
with  ruins  that  antedate  the  oldest  aboriginal  traditions. 
The  table-lands  of  our  higher  ridge,  too,  somehow  suggested 
tiieidea  of  former  cultivation  :  curious  long-drawn  furrows, 
though  full  of  brambles  and  stones,  bore  a  decided  resem- 
blance to  boundary-ditches,  with  the  earth  heaped  up  at 
either  side ;  a  pile  of  rocks  at  the  brink  of  a  deep  ravine 
reminded  us,  not  without  reason,  perhaps,  of  a  buttressed 
tete  de  pont;  and  the  gradual  descent  of  the  winding  slopes 
seemed  too  regular  to  be  quite  accidental.  With  woodlands 
on  either  side,  our  ridge  was  very  sparsely  timbered :  the 
plateau  seemed  naturally  arid,  and  the  Spanish  muleteers 
had  aggravated  the  evil  by  their  condemnable  habit  of  using 
the  wayside  shade-trees  for  firewood :  the  most  frequented 
highways  of  New  Spain  are  lined  with  tree-stumps  and  the 
charred  vestiges  of  innumerable  camp-fires.  In  certain  re- 
spects the  Latin  races  are  our  superiors  in  hygienic  insight, 
but  their  conformity  to  the  health  laws  of  Nature  is  sul)- 
jective  rather  than  objective.  Cleanly  in  his  personal  habits, 
the  Spanish  Creole  tolerates  all  kinds  of  nuisances  in  and 
about  his  rancho :  he  permits  his  land  to  become  a  desert 
or  a  seed-plot  of  malaria,  but  counteracts  the  consequences 
by  dietetic  precautions. 

Frugal,  in  the  original  sense  of  the  word,  meant  literally 
to  live  on  fruits  in  distinction  to  carnivorous  habits,  which 
the  ancient  Italians  discountenanced  as  a  dietetic  aberration  ; 
and  this  literal  kind  of  frugality  is  no  bad  plan  in  the  trop- 
ics. We  halted  for  refreshments  at  a  wayside  venta,  and 
heard  to  our  dismay  that  the  ventero  had  only  tortillas  and 
oranges  for  sale;  but  we  found   no  reason   to  repent   our 

20 


310  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

lenten  fare.  The  sun  seemed  to  have  lost  his  power  for 
mischief  this  morning ;  the  roasting  of  our  skin  did  not 
aifect  the  department  of  the  interior ;  our  orange  breakfast 
had  made  us  caloric-proof.  Besides  being  the  most  digest- 
ible articles  of  food,  fruits  seem  to  have  the  property  of 
lowering  the  temperature  of  the  system,  as  it  is  increased 
by  meat  and  all  kinds  of  fat;  and  I  have  often  found  a 
fresh-plucked  pineapple  or  orange  from  twenty  to  thirty- 
five  degrees  cooler  than  the  surrounding  air  under  the 
shadiest  trees.  Plants  seem  to  possess  a  power  for  producing 
cold  analogous  to  that  exhibited  by  animals  of  producing 
heat,  and  even  in  the  midst  of  a  large  desert  the  cool  ex- 
halations of  an  isolated  forest  will  draw  rain  from  passing 
clouds  which  withhold  that  blessing  from  the  thirsty  sand- 
fields  around.  Insects,  too,  seem  somehow  able  to  main- 
tain a  comfortable  temperature  under  a  blazing  sun  :  at  ten 
o'clock  the  flint  buttresses  on  our  ridge  felt  as  hot  as  oven- 
plates,  and  the  lizards  in  the  shade  of  the  cliflPs  lay  gasping 
with  open  mouth,  but  the  insect  world  seemed  to  celebrate 
a  holiday,  the  manna-mesquites  swarmed  with  wasps  and 
beetles,  and  the  flower-tufts  of  the  dusty-green  cassias 
sparkled  with  hovering  butterflies. 

A  winding  ravine  brought  us  to  the  valley  of  the  Rio 
Macoba  before  noon,  and,  after  stopping  at  different  unpro- 
ductive ranchos,  we  found  the  right  one  and  replenished  our 
mess-bag  with  a  store  of  cakes  and  bananas.  There  was  no 
lack  of  drinking-water  in  the  creeks,  but  we  had  set  our 
heart  on  reaching  a  little  eminence  with  a  magnificent  clump 
of  trees  that  had  been  a  conspicuous  landmark  for  the  last 
four  hours.  Our  perseverance  met  its  reward  :  no  draught 
of  spring-water  could  be  more  refreshing  than  the  air  tliat 
received  us  on  entering  the  tree-shade :  the  sudden  change 
equalled  the  thermal  contrast  at  the  mouth  of  a  deep  cave. 


YUCATAN. 


311 


CHRISTMAS    IN    YUCATAN. 


The  family  of  a  poor  ranchero  were  eating  their  Christmas 
dinner  at  the  foot  of  a  giant  fig,  and  rose  with  exclamations 
o^  we\eome :"  Buenos  diets  de  Dios,  caba/lcros  ! — a  liajipv 


312  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

Christmas  to  you  !  What  fine  weather  you  have  brought 
us !  Dismount,  amigos  :  hay  campo  por  dos  pueblos — there 
is  room  here  for  a  cityful." 

We  needed  not  much  urging,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the 
good  ranchera  had  revived  the  embers  of  her  camp-fire,  and 
proceeded  to  warm  our  tortillas  with  a  sauce  of  onions  and 
clarified  butter.'  They  declined  our  invitation  to  share  our 
repast,  but  showed  their  good-will  by  joining  us  at  the  sec- 
ond course,  and  our  combined  eflForts  soon  produced  an  im- 
posing pile  of  banana-peels.  While  we  enjoyed  our  Christ- 
mas siesta  the  ranchero's  muchachos  combined  pleasure  with 
business  by  chasing  the  big  yellow  butterflies  that  visited 
the  honeysuckle  festoons  of  our  shade-trees,  the  tally  being 
kept  by  their  little  sister,  who  announced  each  capture  with 
screams  of  delight  and  derision  of  the  unsuccessful  com- 
petitor. Their  father's  farm  was  crossed  by  the  camino  real 
to  Uxmal,  and  visitors  from  the  strange  country  called  In- 
glaterra  had  often  paid  as  much  as  twenty  cents  for  a  single 
butterfly, — the  day's  wages  of  a  stout  peon  for  a  flimsy  and 
almost  imponderable  insect !  But  fun,  to  be  unmixed,  must 
be  unprofitable,  and  the  young  entomologists  soon  devised 
a  change  of  programme.  On  the  opposite  bank  of  a  deep 
ravine  grazed  a  troop  of  young  mules,  led — or  rather  mis- 
led— by  a  wary  old  donkey  who  had  retired  from  business 
to  enjoy  the  evening  of  his  life  on  the  sunny  slopes  of  the 
cerro.  In  a  bush  near  their  pasture,  but  overhanging  the 
ravine,  a  colony  of  black  hornets  had  built  a  conspicuous 
nest,  a  grayish-white  spheroid  at  least  sixteen  inches  long 
by  a  foot  in  diameter.  A  common  stone  would  hardly  carry 
across,  but,  after  a  number  of  fruitless  attempts,  one  of  the 
boys  hit  the  nest  with  a  flat  })iece  of  slate,  and  two  seconds 
later  the  mules  joined  in  a  series  of  antics  that  would  have 
made  the  fortune  of  any  circus-proprietor.     The  old  ran- 


YUCATAN.  ;il3 

chero  laughed  till  he  screeched,  and  we  had  just  secured  our 
animals,  who  were  watching  the  evolutions  with  growing 
interest,  when  the  performance  closed  with  a  thundering 
hurdle-race  through  the  underbrush  of  the  chaparral. 

When  the  boys  returned  their  progenitor  broached  a  pack- 
age of  cigaritos,  and  the  whole  family  then  indulged  in  a 
sociable  Christmas  smoke.  They  were  peones  de  rotura, — 
board-laborers  working  for  their  rent  and  a  few  shillings 
a  month, — too  ])oor  to  indulge  in  ■pulque  or  garbanzas  on 
week-days,  but  evidently  with  no  reason  to  envy  the  noon- 
ing of  a  Northern  factory-laborer  with  his  ten  dollars  a 
week  and  ten  daily  working-hours.  He  who  thinks  other- 
wise has  never  seen  a  Pittsburg  iron-worker  on  a  midwinter 
day  bolting  his  dinner  in  a  corner  of  the  rolling-mill,  where 
flying  cinders  and  sooty  drops  mix  with  his  pea-soup,  and 
the  draught  of  three  open  doors  with  the  breath  of  the 
furnace,  while  his  son  or  the  boarding-house  boy  stands 
shivering  by,  waiting  for  the  dishes  and  his  share  of  the 
leathery  pie-crust.     0  Dios  del  Sur! 

Excess  of  caloric  might  cause  as  much  discomfort  as 
excessive  cold  if  it  could  not  be  so  much  more  easily 
counteracted.  Even  the  after-dinner  hour — generally  the 
warmest  from  within  and  without — may  be  passed  right 
pleasantly  at  such  trifling  expense  as  may  be  involved  by 
a  trip  to  the  next  shade-trees.  After  a  frugal  dinner,  rest- 
ing on  a  shady  eminence,  without  insane  scruples  against  the 
removal  of  superfluous  garments,  you  may  defy  the  dog-star 
to  do  its  worst.  Such  a  siesta-camp  found,  what  can  exceed 
the  luxury  of  its  dreamy  repose? — though  in  the  tropics 
you  have  to  dream  with  your  eyes  open  :  it  is  not  easy  to 
slumber  during  the  busiest  working-hour  of  the  organic 
powers.  Earth  seems  surcharged  with  vitality  as  the  sky 
with  sunlight.     You  feel  the  pulsations  of  Nature's  heart, 


314  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

the  breath  of  the  Dea  Genetrix :  the  essence  of  life  quick- 
ens the  soil,  moves  over  and  in  the  waters,  and  peoples  the 
air  with  a  thousand  forms :  the  spirit  of  Vishnu^is  almost 
visibly  present ;  the  day-fairies  may  bring  you  visions,  but 
they  are  visions  that  banish  sleep. 

After  an  hour  or  so  we  remounted,  though  the  weather 
was  still  oppressively  warm.  Dark-gray  clouds  had  risen 
from  the  east,  but  failed  to  overtake  the  sun,  and  we  envied 
the  parrots  that  returned  in  swarms  from  the  fields  to  their 
homes  in  the  depths  of  the  virgin  woods.  A  flight  of  ma- 
caws in  a  wooded  valley  on  our  left  were  called  together 
by  their  leader  and  started  off  in  double  file,  or  rather  by 
sets  of  twos,  for  high  overhead  the  column  divided  pair- 
wise,  and  the  separate  couples  took  a  bee-line  to  their  re- 
spective nests.  It  was  a  pretty  sight,  and  their  harsh 
screams  sounded  clear  and  melodious  from  the  distance, — 
from  an  astonishing  distance  indeed,  for  the  voice  of  the 
larger  parrots  is  not  less  remarkable  for  its  power  than  for 
its  versatility :  the  crested  macaws  can  summon  their  mates 
from  across  the  broadest  rivers  of  the  American  tropics. 

"  It  reminds  me  of  home,"  said  the  Cuban.  "  In  the 
province  of  Bayamo  they  are  our  weather-prophets,  and  if 
they  hurry  home  before  sunset  the  farmers  follow,  because 
it  is  a  sure  sign  of  rain." 

"I  do  not  know  about  rain,  but  I  reckon  we'll  have  a 
storm  before  night,"  said  the  guide.  "They  have  dry 
gales  in  this  country  that  are  worse  than  any  thunder- 
storm :  the  wind  doesn't  seem  to  have  so  much  force  if 
there  is  water  in  the  air." 

"Did  you  see  that  lightning?" 

"  Yes  :  that  decides  it,"  said  he :  "  we  are  in  for  a  rain- 
storm now.  Close  up,  gentlemen :  I'm  trying  to  get  you 
to  Charley  Cortina's  tower-house  if  I  can  :  he  has  better 


YUCATAN.  315 

accommodation  tlian  any  ventcro  avc  could  possibly  reach 
to-night." 

If  animals  cannot  be  credited  with  reason  proper,  it  must 
be  a  sort  of  acquired  instinct  which  enables  them  to  ap- 
preciate their  own  share  of  interest  in  the  rate  of  progress. 
Our  mules  went  ahead  at  a  spanking  trot,  and  continued  to 
improve  their  gait  without  other  prompting  than  that  of 
the  muttering  thunder  and  a  chill  gust  of  wind  which  sud- 
denly cooled  the  air  by  twenty  or  thirty  degrees.  Splashing 
through  a  creek,  we  started  a  drove  of  mayarros,  or  dwarf 
peccaris,  which  had  huddled  together  in  the  canebrake 
under  the  shelter  of  a  fallen  tree,  and  I  noticed  that  one  of 
the  young  pigs  had  its  legs  so  entangled  with  pond-weeds 
and  mud  that  it  might  have  been  easily  captured.  But 
there  was  no  time  for  zoological  adventures :  a  whirlwind 
of  dust  and  leaves  swept  across  the  creek  and  over  our 
heads  when  we  reached  the  top  of  the  opposite  bank. 

"  Single  file !"  yelled  the  Pecador.  "  Keep  up,  caballeros, 
unless  you're  waterproof:  not  a  minute  to  lose." 

We  galloped  through  a  rocky  defile  and  away  over  the 
chaparral  in  the  direction  of  a  banana-plantation  at  the  foot 
of  a  wooded  ridge. 

"  Is  that  Cortina's  place  ?" 

"  No:  the  next  below  it, — the  house  at  the  farther  end  of 
the  ridge." 

"  Too  late !"  cried  the  Cuban.  "  Look  back  there  :  it's 
coming  like  a  flying  deluge." 

"  We  have  to  keep  ahead  of  it.  Wake  'em  up,  gents ! 
Aha!     Devil  take  the  hindmost!" 

"  He  won't  take  me,  then,"  shouted  the  Cuban.  "  Let's 
see  what  they  call  riding  in  your  country,  Mr.  Guide. 
Here  goes  !  Santos  de  Cuba !" 

He  had  the  advantage  of  us,  being  slight-built  and  long- 


316  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

spurred,  and  the  hydrophobic  mule  forged  ahead  at  a  rate 
which  completely  redeemed  her  character.  There  was  no 
need  of  looking  back :  the  oncoming  storm  roared  in  our 
rear  like  a  waterfall,  and  a  dust-cloud  whirling  leaves  and 
twigs  over  our  heads  made  us  clutch  our  sombreros.  The 
rancho  was  almost  reached, — they  had  seen  us,  for  we  heard 
their  cheers  and  the  creak  of  the  swinging  gate, — but  in  the 
moment  when  we  galloped  through  the  corral  the  flying  sea 
overtook  us,  and  no  wetter  guests  ever  crossed  the  threshold 
of  Carlos  Cortina. 

The  "  tower-house"  had  originally  been  built  for  a  con- 
vent, and  the  walls  were  of  enormous  thickness,  the  material 
having  been  brought  in  the  form  of  ready-hewn  limestone 
blocks  from  the  ruins  of  a  neighboring  teocalli;  but  I  could 
not  get  rid  of  the  impression  that  \felt  as  well  as  heard  the 
storm-blasts  which  seemed  to  strike  the  house  from  all  sides 
at  once.  After  removing  our  wet  mantles  the  family  of 
the  landlord  pressed  around  us  in  silent  awe,  till  we  had  to 
laugh  in  our  own  despite  at  the  manoeuvres  of  a  little  sapa- 
jou  monkey  who  was  trying  to  hide  behind  a  hand-loom  in 
the  corner,  and  squealed  and  chattered  in  his  attempts 
to  squeeze  his  shoulders  through.  .  Daylight  was  almost 
eclipsed,  but  the  air  was  fairly  deluged  with  electric  fire, 
and  the  voice  of  Jupiter  Tonans  rose  to  a  continuous  roar. 
There  were  eleven  persons  in  the  room,  including  two 
women  and  several  children,  but  I  do  not  think  that  any 
of  them  were  afraid:  the  feeling  of  fear  in  such  moments 
is  kept  in  abeyance  by  a  stronger  emotion,  an  excitement 
which  neither  experience  nor  lightning-rods  will  help  us  to 
outgrow.  It  may  take  the  form  of  devotional  exaltation 
or  of  boisterous  mirth,  but  only  the  opium-torpor  of  a  Turk 
would  be  proof  against  crashes  that  shake  the  air  behind  a 
wall  of  bombproof  masonry  and  flashes  that  can  penetrate 


YUCATAN.  317 

the  veil  of  a  cloudburst.  Moreover,  I  susi)ect  that  the 
sensations  of  a  deaf  and  blind  person  durin<^  a  tro])i('al 
thunderstorm  would  furnish  some  curious  arguments  in 
favor  of  Von  Haller's  conjecture  that  the  organism  of  the 
human  soul  is  an  electro-magnetic  apparatus. 

"  That  will  cool  the  weather  for  the  next  two  weeks, 
anyhow,"  said  the  landlord,  when  tlie  worst  was  over;  "but 
it  comes  a  little  too  soon  to  suit  me :  my  corn  isn't  quite 
ripe,  and  I  am  afraid  there  is  not  much  left  standing." 

"That  will  disappoint  your  long-tailed  neighbors,  tiie 
apes,"  laughed  the  guide.  "  Better  get  your  corn  in  as  it 
is,  or  they  will  take  it  for  a  New  Year's  present,  as  they  did 
last  year." 

"  Oh,  they  are  welcome,"  said  the  farmer.  "  I  made 
them  {)ay  for  all  they  got :  I  caught  fourteen  last  summer 
and  sold  them  all  but  three." 

"Do  you  catch  any  in  winter-time?" 

"  There  will  be  a  chance  to-morrow  if  it  clears  up  before 
morning,  but  the  best  time  is  the  rainy  season"  (June  to 
November).  "  If  the  woods  are  thoroughly  soaked,  they 
can't  stand  it  any  longer,  and  come  out  into  the  open  fields 
with  the  first  sunshine." 

"You  ship  them  to  Campeche,  I  suppose?" 

"  A  few,  senor,  but  my  foreign  visitors  pay  me  more  than 
the  regular  traders.  This  is  only  eight  miles  from  Uxmal, 
you  know,  and  strangers  pass  almost  every  week.  One  of 
my  neighbors  has  a  regular  curiosity-shop  of  birds  and  pets." 

"What  is  the  average  price  of  your  moid<eys?" 

"  All  the  way  from  four  reals  to  four  dollars,  sir :  one 
American  lady  paid  me  four  dollars  for  an  old  mono  vasteco'* 
(sapajou),  "  the  wickedest  brute  I  ever  caught.  Strangers 
somehow  seem  to  prefer  the  full-grown  ones, — mayl)c  on 
account  of  their  glossy  fur, — but  if  they  asked  my  advice  I 


318  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

should  tell  them  honestly  that  they  throw  their  money  away 
if  they  pay  as  much  as  four  copper  cents  for  the  finest  old 
monkey  in  Yucatan,  unless  they  want  to  eat  him  or  stuif 
him.  If  they  hope  to  get  any  fun  out  of  the  brute,  they 
are  cheated :  a  badger  or  a  boar  peccari  isn't  half  as  con- 
trary as  an  old  monkey.  As  a  rule,  the  funniness  of  a 
monkey  ends  with  his  second  year." 

The  rain  ceased  toward  morning,  but  the  air  was  still 
humid  and  sultry,  and  our  guide  advised  us  to  wait  for  a 
safer  guarantee  of  fair  weather,  a  change  of  wind  or  of  tem- 
perature. While  the  farmer  inspected  his  corn-fields  we 
ascended  a  little  mound  behind  the  house  to  take  a  look  at 
the  ruins  of  a  teocalli,  or  ancient  altar-pyramid,  which  from 
the  valley  looked  almost  like  a  strongly-entrenched  rock- 
fortress.  I  could  not  ascertain  the  former  height  of  the 
pyramid,  nor  how  often  its  ruins  had  been  pillaged  by  mod- 
ern builders,  but,  to  judge  by  the  dimensions  of  the  present 
ruins,  I  believe  that  the  original  structure  must  have  been 
the  work  of  different  generations,  unless  the  mandate  of  a 
despot  had  assembled  an  army  of  architects.  The  mission 
of  Sacrificios,  or  the  "  tower-house"  {easa  torrada),  as  the 
neighbors  call  it,  was  built  in  1812  with  the  contributions 
collected  by  the  Franciscan  monks  in  the  district  of  Valla- 
dolid  ;  but  the  site  chosen  by  its  first  projectors  was  sixteen 
English  miles  farther  up  the  river,  near  the  junction  of  the 
Rio  Macoba  with  a  perennial  affluent.  It  seems  that  the 
workmen  and  their  purveyors  were  in  the  habit  of  fetching 
their  forage  from  the  woodlands  of  the  lower  river-valley, 
and  that  on  one  of  these  expeditions  a  Mexican  woodcutter 
discovered  the  teocalli  of  Sacrificios,  a  huge  rubbish-mound 
entirely  covered  with  a  shroud  of  creepers  and  tanglewood. 
Finding  the  stones  superior  in  size  and  finish  to  those  his 
countrymen  were  chiselling  with  so  much  labor,  he  reported 


VUCATAN. 


319 


his  find  to  the  contractor,  who  at  once  cjirae  do^vn,  and,  after 
a  careful  examination  of  the  ruins,  otfercd  to  execute  his 
contract  at  one-third  of  the  stipulated  price  if  his  eni])lov- 
ers  would  agree  to  change  the  site  to  the  neighborhood  of 


THE   RUINS   OF   8ACRIFICIOS. 


the  teocalli.  The  Franciscans,  seeing  their  way  out  of  a 
financial  embarrassment,  consulted  their  superior,  who, 
whispering  he  would  ne'er  consent,  not  oidy  consented,  but 
also  recognized  the  miraculous  character  of  the  discovery, 
which  is  now  claimed  to  have  been  the  result  of  a  vision  re- 
vealing the  locality  of  the  strange  quarry  when  the  builders 
were  straitened  for  the  means  of  pursuing  their  pious  work. 


320  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

The  teocalli  itself  is  certainly  a  marvel  of  enterprise. 
The  foundation-walls,  consisting  of  a  triple  stratum  of  Cy- 
clopean blocks,  cover  an  area  of  nearly  half  an  acre,  and 
would  alone  furnish  the  material  for  half  a  dozen  churches, 
while  the  upper  seven  tiers  of  the  superstructure  are  cov- 
ered with  ornaments  which  must  have  cost  infinite  labor  if 
it  is  true  that  their  sculptors  were  unacquainted  with  the 
use  of  iron  implements.  Between  here  and  Uxmal  the 
ground  is  almost  covered  with  debris,  and  the  "sacrificial 
mound"  of  the  Rio  Macoba  may  have  been  a  suburban 
palace  or  fortified  acropolis  of  the  great  city. 

"Caught  a  monkey?"  inquired  our  guide,  when  we  met 
the  farmer's  family  at  breakfast. 

"  No,  but  we  lost  one,"  whimpered  the  little  girl. 

"Halloo,  what's  the  matter?  Did  one  of  your  pets  get 
away  ?" 

"  Look  here !"  said  the  farmer,  showing  us  the  dead  body 
of  a  little  tamarin  {Midas  rosalia) :  "  all  the  wild  monkeys 
in  Yucatan  and  all  my  dogs  would  I  have  given  for  this 
h'ttle  fellow,  and  one  of  our  pet  squirrels  bit  him  to  death 
last  night.  Parece  que  tuvo  alma — I'm  sure  he  had  a  soul," 
said  he :  "  my  children  never  had  a  prettier  playmate." 

"  Your  squirrel  did  it,  you  say  ?" 

"  Yes,  he  burned  his  tail  a  couple  of  weeks  ago,  and  last 
night  the  squirrel  found  that  sore  place  and  gnawed  his  tail 
clear  up  to  the  backbone, — bled  him  to  death,  I  suppose. 
When  my  children  found  him  this  morning  he  was  as  limp 
as  a  rag,  and  died  before  I  came  back.  It  isn't  my  fault : 
I  shouldn't  have  sold  him  for  ten  dollars.  But  just  do  look 
at  those  children :  they  wouldn't  cry  half  as  much  if  the 
curate  of  our  parish  had  died." 

"  Never  mind,  Anita,"  said  her  mother :  "  your  papa  will 
catch  you  another  one  just  like  this." 


YUCATAN.  321 

"  No,  he  never  will,"  wailed  Anita.  "  0,  wit  querido,  mi 
pobre  chi'quetido  ! — my  sweetheart,  my  poor  little  sweet- 
heart !" 

""  Padrecito,"  said  the  boy,  who  had  clutched  his  father's 
arm  till  he  secured  his  attention, — "padrecito,  mother  says 
that  you  are  going  to  skin  that  squirrel  alive:  when  will 
you  do  it  ?" 

"  Yes,  my  boy, — as  soon  as  we  have  buried  poor  Chico." 

"Father,"  continued  the  boy,  "will  you  let  me  rub  him 
with  pepper-sauce  after  you've  skinned  him?" 

"  Pie's  right,"  laughed  the  Pecador :  "  you  ought  to  get 
ten  dollars'  worth  of  satisfaction  out  of  the  brute  that  did 
it:  are  you  going  to  kill  him?" 

"Que  sirve  f"  ("cui  bono?"),  said  he  :  "  it's  their  nature, 
I  suppose :  squirrels  are  nothing  but  overgrown  rats,  any- 
how." 

Our  kind  host  accompanied  us  to  the  upper  end  of  his 
farm,  from  where  we  could  reach  our  destination  by  a  trail 
across  the  hill-pastures,  the  road  through  the  river-bottom 
being  somewhat  miry  after  the  heavy  rain.  The  wind  had 
veered  to  the  northwest,  and  between  the  slowly-shifting 
clouds  on  the  eastern  horizon  the  sun  glittered  on  a  light- 
green  plain  intersected  by  still  brighter,  almost  canary-yel- 
low, stripes  and  lines,  radiating  up  the  river  toward  ti)e 
dark-green  hill-country  at  our  feet.  The  bright  lines  marked 
the  extent  of  the  riparial  palmetto-swamps,  the  home  of 
countless  varieties  of  water-birds  and  the  favorite  haunt  of 
the  roving  Tabascanos,  while  the  agricultural  Maceguals 
stick  to  the  upland  valleys,  where  their  crops  are  eked  out 
by  an  unfailing  harvest  of  spontaneous  fruits.  The  banks 
of  the  Macoba  are  overhung  with  fig-trees  and  cabbage- 
palms,  festooned  with  the  coils  of  the  uva  real,  whose  small 
but  sweet  and  very  prolific  yellow  grapes  alone  would  se- 


322  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

cure  a  homeless  wanderer  against  starvation :  farther  up, 
butternut-palms,  carob-trees,  mangoes,  and  wild  mulberries 
form  evergreen  and  ever-teeming  orchards,  and  the  under- 
brush abounds  with  nuts,  berries,  and  diiferent  wild-growing 
Leguminosse,  whose  beans  are  often  mixed  with  those  of 
the  cultivated  varieties. 

Of  all  non-indigenous  fruit-trees,  the  biennial  banana 
alone  requires  "tillage  and  artificial  propagation,  but  rewards 
its  cultivator  so  abundantly  that  a  populous  village  might 
here  be  supported  with  the  same  amount  of  labor  and  on 
the  same  acreage  which  in  the  North  would  hardly  main- 
tain a  small  family.  A  dinner  of  brown  beans,  maize 
cakes,  milk,  and  bananas  requires  but  few  entremets, — grapes 
perhaps,  a  little  honey  or  butter  now  and  then,  or  an  oc- 
casional bit  of  bacon ;  but  of  the  four  first-named  staples 
the  Yucatan  farmer  can  secure  a  redundant  supply  by  one 
hour  of  daily  work,  without  using  any  of  the  labor-saving 
contrivances  which  have  converted  our  large  Eastern  farms 
into  so  many  steam-factories. 

At  the  outskirts  of  a  coppice  of  taxus-trees  we  came 
across  a  singular  obstacle.  A  long  wall  of  verdure  it 
seemed,  a  perfectly  straight  hedge  of  brier  and  bush-ropes, 
but  a  closer  inspection  revealed  a  substratum  of  masonry, 
heavy  and  rough-hewn  but  well-cemented  limestone  blocks. 
A  dome-like  mass  of  foliage  on  a  hill  on  our  right  was 
probably  supported  by  a  similar  nucleus,  and  every  now 
and  then  our  animals  stumbled  over  rubbish-heaps  and 
scattered  blocks  covered  with  grass  or  a  network  of  cordero- 
brambles.  A  good  deal  of  building  material  seemed  to 
have  been  quarried  in  the  next  neighborhood,  for  the  rock- 
walls  of  a  narrow  valley  a  little  farther  down  were  hewn  into 
terraces  and  polygons  for  a  stretch  of  nearly  half  a  mile. 

As  we  pursued  our  trail  along  the  shady  banks  of  a  little 


YUCATAN.  323 

creek  our  guide  suddenly  halted  at  the  foot  of  a  imissive 
bridge-head,  and  wc  dismounted  to  lead  our  mules  over  a 
barricade  of  heaped-up  debris:  we  had  entered  the  suburbs 
of  Uxmal.  The  forest  seemed  literally  to  rise  from  a  buried 
city.  Almost  everywhere  the  ground  was  j)aved  or  strewn 
with  square-hewn  limestone  blocks ;  leafy  arbors  and  copses, 
standing  about  in  detached  groups,  turned  out  to  be  rub- 
bish-heaps with  a  film  of  vegetation ;  and  when  we  haltered 
our  mules  under  the  canopy  of  a  flowering  tamarind  we 
found  that  its  roots  had  wrenched  a  sculptured  corner-stone 
from  the  base  of  a  buried  terrace. 

What  might  a  dwelling-place  of  the  living  be  where  a 
city  of  the  dead  could  robe  itself  in  such  a  garb  of  joy? 
The  platform  of  the  crumbling  terrace  was  covered  with  a 
flower-carpet  of  wildering  geraniums,  lianas  and  evergreen 
vines  twined  their  garlands  from  wall  to  wall,  and  pendent 
tresses  of  tillandsia  moss  fluttered  like  banners  from  the 
lintel  of  a  broken  gateway.  As  the  sun  rose  higher  the 
noon-blooming  heliconias  shook  the  rain  from  their  locks 
and  opened  the  light-blue  eyes  of  their  feather-flowers,  and 
when  the  north  wind  dissipated  the  clouds  the  sun  himself 
blinked  through  the  swaying  screen  of  the  liana  taugle 
and  coquetted  with  the  dancing  rivulet  at  our  feet.  Not  a 
nook,  not  a  recess,  was  tenantless:  lizards  peeped  from  the 
narrow  loopholes,  butterflies  and  humming-birds  carried 
their  mornino;  salute  to  their  favorite  flowers  or  visited  the 
shady  arcades  where  a  pair  of  squirrel-monkeys  chattered 
roguishly  in  their  hiding-place,  and  the  leafy  vault  overhead 
resounded  with  the  jubilee  of  the  weaver-thrush. 

How  cheap  is  happiness  in  the  tropics!  and  how  expen- 
sive in  the  latitudes  where  light  and  warmth  cease  to  be 
the  free  gifts  of  Nature !  Our  tongues  iiave  been  attuned 
to  hymns  (jf  thanksgiving  and  resignation,  l>ut  how  many 


324  SXJMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

thousand  hearts  in  Europe  and  North  America  may  repeat 
the  lament  of  Lenau's  exiled  Circassian  and  his  prayer  to 
the  sun, — 

Take  me  from  this  icy  desert, 
Up  to  thee,  eternal  One  ! 

We  may  point  to  our  superior  civilization,  our  steam- 
ploughs  and  sewing-machines,  our  petroleum  stoves,  gas-lit 
cities,  benevolent  societies  and  feather  beds,  but  all  that 
proves  only  that  life  has  become  more  complex  on  the  jn- 
door  plan,  and  that  the  absence  of  natural  comforts  has 
promoted  the  elaboration  of  some  highly  ingenious  substi- 
tutes. Reduced  to  its  essentials,  however,  the  problem  is 
just  this :  Has  our  net  surplus  of  happiness  been  increased  ? 
Can  we  discount  the  gratuitous  blessings  of  the  South  after 
subtracting  the  manufacturing  expenses  of  our  boasted 
succedanea?  Or  has  our  burden  of  woe  been  lightened 
enough  to  incline  the  balance  in  our  favor  ?  Are  cold  and 
hunger  a  less  fruitful  source  of  misery  than  indolence? 
Where  is  the  reward  of  incessant  toil  if  its  produce  is  swal- 
lowed by  those  ever-clamorous  creditors?  Our  system  of 
ethics,  a  mixture  of  puritan  and  mercantile  principles, 
makes  us  liable  to  forget  that  labor  is  a  blessing  only  as  a 
means  to  something  better,  not  as  the  end  of  existence,  and 
that  the  temptations  of  leisure  may  survive  its  golden  op- 
.  portunities.  Ten  hours  of  factory- work,  often  followed  by 
a  heavy  share  of  doniestic  drudgery,  leave  not  much  chance 
for  the  gratification  of  an  ugly  habit,  but  certainly  even 
less  for  the  cultivation  of  a  fine  talent,  for  weeds  may  still 
thrive  where  nobler  plants  must  hopelessly  starve. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  higher  latitudes  have  be- 
come the  home  of  the  superior  races,  but  the  theory  which 
ascribes  the  shortcomings  of  our  neighbors  to  unavoidable 
climatic  influences  cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  stature  and 


YUCATAN.  325 

strength  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  modern  Abysshiians, 
nor  with  the  relics  of  a  thousand  cities  whose  buildere 
proved  that  enterprise  and  genius  may  flourish  in  a  winter- 
less  clime. 

The  present  degeneracy  of  the  noblest  Southern  nation 
is  rather  a  consequence  of  the  baleful  physical  vices  which 
have  fastened  upon  mankind  like  a  canker,  whose  ravages 
can  only  be  counteracted  by  a  powerful  prophylactic.  This 
antidote  has  been  found  in  a  cold  climate.  Cold  air  is  a 
tonic  and  antiseptic :  like  quinine  and  belladonna,  a  heavy 
frost  acts  as  a  febrifuge ;  it  preserves  animal  tissues  from 
decay,  and  enables  us  to  indulge  with  comparative  impunity 
in  a  variety  of  anti-natural  habits  for  which  our  Southern 
neighbors  have  paid  with  their  prestige  and  their  pristine 
vigor.  The  bitterness  of  the  cure  may  be  the  condition  of 
its  efficacy.  But  is  the  evil  itself  a  necessary  one?  Our 
scientific  journals  lately  adverted  to  the  discovery  of  a 
California  opium-eater  who  could  "  sober  up"  at  ten  min- 
utes' notice  by  swallowing  an  heroic  dose  of  arsenic;  and 
more  than  three  centuries  ago  Paracelsus  found  tiiat  the 
progress  of  a  virulent,  and  till  then  incurable,  disease  could 
be  arrested  by  the  internal  use  of  mercury.  Tiiese  I'emedics, 
too,  may  be  infallible,  and,  on  the  whole,  the  lesser  evil,  but 
all  that  would  hardly  justify  the  assertion  that  sobriety  and 
purity  can  only  thrive  on  a  basis  of  arsenic  and  quicksilver; 
and  yet  it  is  in  a  precisely  analogous  way  that  a  cold  climate 
counteracts  a  tendency  to  sloth  and  ignorance  and  mitigates 
the  consequences  of  dietetic  abuses. 

To  Nature-abiding  nations  and  individuals  the  upland 
regions  of  the  tropics  would  offer  chances  of  a  happiness 
superior  to  that  of  the  frost-plagued  latitudes,  by  just  as 
much  as  sunlight  is  superior  to  coal-gas,  and  the  botanic 
garden  of  Lima  to  the  finest  Northern  conservatory. 

21 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE    AMERICAN    POMPEII. 

Sleeping  in  a  leafy  vault, 

In  a  winding-sheet  of  ivy. — Shenstone. 

"  Every  tomb  is  a  cradle/'  says  Jean  Paul ;  and  his  apo- 
thegm holds  good  wherever  the  organism  of  Nature  exerts 
its  functions  in  undisturbed  harmony.  Life  is  the  heir  of 
Death :  every  mouldering  plant  fertilizes  an  aftergrowth 
of  its  kind,  and  if  the  races  of  mankind  succeeded  each 
other  as  the  trees  of  the  forest,  a  superior  spirit  might  view 
the  decay  of  an  oak  and  of  a  nation  with  equal  unconcern. 

But  while  the  fading  flowers  of  the  old  year  may  console 
us  with  the  hope  of  a  coming  spring,  our  lament  over  the 
withered  empires  of  the  Old  World  has  a  deeper  significance  ; 
the  dying  nations  of  the  East  have  involved  their  fields 
and  forests  in  an  equal  fate :  the  lands  that  know  them  no 
more  have  themselves  withered,  and  no  spring  can  restore 
the  prime  of  an  exhausted  soil.  From  Eastern  Persia  to 
Western  Morocco,  Earth  has  thus  perished  together  with 
her  inhabitants :  Vishnu  has  resigned  his  power  to  Shiva, 
and  the  Buddhistic  Nirvan,  the  final  departure  of  the 
Genius  of  Life,  has  already  begun  for  some  of  the  fairest 
countries  ever  brightened  by  the  sun  of  the  Juventus 
Mundi. 

The  western  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  too,  have  seen  the 
rise  and  decline  of  mighty  empires :  the  ruins  of  Uxmal 
equal  those  of  Nineveh  in  grandeur  as  well  as  in  the  hope- 
326 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  327 

lessness  of  their  decay,  but  tlie  soil  of  Yucatan  has  .sur- 
vived its  tyrants.  In  tlie  struggle  between  Chaos  and 
Cosmos  the  organic  powers  have  here  prevailed,  and  the 
sylvan  deities  have  resumed  their  ancient  sway. 

There  is  a  well-defined  ridge  of  Tertiary  limestone  for- 
mation which  divides  the  table-lands  of  the  eastern  penin- 
sula from  the  wooded  lowlands  of  the  west,  and  the  ruins 
of  Uxmal,  Chichen,  Izamal,  and  Macoba  have  all  been 
discovered  in  the  western  timber-lands,  but  have  nowhere 
betrayed  their  existence  by  the  diminished  exuberance  of 
the  vegetation.  Their  walls  are  hedged,  interlocked,  and 
covered  with  trees,  and  while  the  Oriental  archaeologist 
has  to  grope  in  the  sand-drifts  of  burning  deserts,  his  Trans- 
atlantic colleague  can  tiius  pursue  his  studies  in  tlie  shade 
of  a  forest-region  whose  living  wonders  may  well  divide 
his  attention  with  the  marvels  of  the  past.  Eighty  years 
ago  the  district  of  Macoba  and  Belonchcn  was  an  unex- 
plored wilderness.  The  Jesuit  missionaries  of  Valladolid 
had  recorded  an  Indian  tradition  about  the  vestiges  of  a 
giant  city  in  the  neighborhood  of  Merida,  but  their  vague 
descriptions  were  supposed  to  refer  to  the  large  teocalli 
near  the  convent  of  Sacrificios,  and  the  rediscovery  of  the 
Casas  Grandes  seems  to  have  been  as  complete  a  surprise 
to  the  citizens  of  Merida  as  the  exhumation  of  Pompeii  to 
the  burghers  of  Nola  and  Castellamare. 

The  great  treasure-trove  of  1829  has  often  been  ascribed 
to  the  Baron  Frederic  de  Waldeck,  though  since  the  publi- 
cation of  his  memoirs  in  1837  his  countrymen  have  never 
claimed  that  honor.  His  subsequent  explorations  made 
Uxmal  the  Mecca  of  American  anticpiarians,  but  the  amus- 
ing account  of  the  original  discovery,  as  given  in  the  Voyayc 
Pittoresque,  proves  that  in  arclueology,  not  less  than  in  other 
sciences,  the  better  part  of  our  knowledge  is  what  Lessing 


^{28  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

called  a  "museum  of  collected  curiosities,  discovered  by- 
accident  and  independently  of  each  other."  On  the  even- 
ing of  the  1st  of  November,  1828,  Don  Paneho  Yegros,  a 
Yucatan  planter,  and  his  guest.  Dr.  Lewis  Mitchel,  a  Scotch 
surgeon  of  Sisal  harbor,  returned  from  a  hunting-expedition 
in  the  Sierra  Marina,  and,  seeking  shelter  from  the  threaten- 
ing weather,  happened  to  come  across  an  Indian  wood- 
chopper,  who  guided  them  to  a  sacristia,  an  old  Indian 
temple  in  the  depths  of  the  forest.  They  lighted  a  fire, 
and,  having  noticed  some  curious  sculptures  in  a  sort  of 
peristyle,  the  Scotchman  proceeded  to  inspect  the  interior 
of  the  building.  The  masonry  was  covered  with  dust  and 
spider-webs,  but  the  application  of  wet  rags  discovered  a 
triple  row  of  bas-relief  decorations  running  along  the  walls 
horizontally  and  at  equal  intervals,  and  between  the  roof 
and  the  upper  lintel  of  the  door  the  limestone  slabs  were 
covered  with  small  figures  which  seemed  too  irregular  for 
simple  ornaments,  and  might  be  hieroglyphic  symbols. 
After  daybreak  the  Scotchman  rummaged  a  pile  of  d§bris 
behind  the  temple,  and  unearthed  the  torso  of  a  little  image, 
which  he  pocketed  with  an  enthusiasm  that  puzzled  the 
Spanish  planter  as  much  as  his  Indian  serf.  The  natives 
were  unable  to  give  any  satisfactory  account  of  the  building, 
and,  taking  his  leave,  the  doctor  requested  his  host  to  inter- 
view the  old  Indian  residents  of  the  neighborhood  in  regard 
to  the  problematic  temple,  and  rode  away  with  the  promise 
to  renew  his  visit  in  the  course  of  the  year. 

"  Isn't  it  strange,"  said  Don  Yegros  when  he  was  alone 
with  his  peon,  "  that  we  have  lived  here  for  a  lifetime  with- 
out suspecting  that  there  was  such  a  curiosity  in  our  neigh- 
borhood ?  Why,  that  caballero  tells  me  that  some  of  his 
countrymen  would  buy  those  pictured  stones  for  their  weight 
in  silver !" 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  329 

"He  gave  me  half  a  dollar,  anyhow,"  chuckled  the 
Indian.  "  He  ought  to  take  those  countrymen  of  his  to 
the  north  end  of  the  sierra :  in  the  chaparral  of  the  Rio 
Macoba  there  is  a  square  league  of  ground  just  covered  with 
such  empty  old  buildings." 

The  hacendado  turned  on  his  heel :  "  Are  you  deranged  ? 
A  square  league  of  such  ruins!  You  do  not  mean  build- 
ings like  that  we  slept  in  last  night  ?" 

"No,  seiior;  very  different  buildings, — houses  as  high  as 
yours,  and  forty  times  as  long.  One  of  them  has  more 
rooms  in  it  than  there  are  tiles  on  your  roof,  and  long 
galleries  with  sculptured  heads  and  figures." 

Don  Yegros  stood  speechless  for  a  moment.  "  Mil  de- 
monios!"  he  burst  out  when  the  stolid  countenance  of  his 
serf  told  him  that  the  fellow  was  in  sober  earnest.  "  ^^'^hy, 
in  the  name  of  your  five  senses,  could  you  not  tell  us  that 
a  minute  sooner?  Did  you  not  see  how  delighted  the 
cabal lero  was  to  find  that  one  old  broken  statue  ?" 

"  He  liked  it,  did  he?  Well,  I  didn't  know  that,  sefior. 
I  found  a  much  prettier  one  in  that  same  place  a  few  years 
ago,  and  took  it  to  our  village  priest,  but  came  very  near 
getting  a  good  hiding  for  it.  He  smashed  it,  and  cursed  it 
for  an  idolatrous  monster  and  me  for  a  monstrous  idiot." 

"  Well,  so  you  are.  Get  on  that  horse  now,  and  I  give 
you  just  twenty  minutes  to  overtake  the  caballero  and  bring 
him  back  here.  Why,  man,  you  came  very  near  missing 
the  only  opportunity  you  ever  had  of  being  of  any  use  in 
the  world." 

The  caballero  and  the  opportunity  were  retrieved,  and  on 
the  next  day  the  peon  led  an  exploring-party  to  the  jungles 
of  the  Rio  Macoba,  where  they  had  to  make  their  way 
through  all  the  obstacles  of  a  pathless  wilderness,  but  on 
the  third  day  found   themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  liana- 


330  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

shrouded  Pompeii,  and  entered  different  edifices  whose  di- 
mensions so  far  exceeded  the  expectations  of  their  archseo- 
logical  companion  that  he  decided  to  return  at  once  and 
carry  the  news  to  the  foreign  residents  of  Sisal.  Tliey  had 
discovered  the  ruins  of  Uxmal,  which  rival  those  of  Thebes 
and  Persepolis  in  beauty  and  grandeur  as  well  as  in  extent, 
and  stand  unequalled  and  unapproached  among  the  archi- 
tectural relics  of  our  own  continent.  While  volumes  had 
been  written  about  the  clumsy  burrows  of  the  Mound- 
builders  and  the  naked  brick  walls  on  the  Rio  Gila,  this 
city  of  palaces  had  slumbered  in  its  forest  shroud,  unex- 
plored by  any  visitor  save  the  prying  catamount  and  the 
silent  tribe  of  the  tropical  bats,  and,  but  for  the  accident  of 
the  rainstorm  on  that  November  night  of  1828,  might  thus 
have  slumbered  for  ever,  like  the  lost  Atlantis  in  her  ocean 
grave. 

Soon  after  his  return  to  Sisal,  Dr.  Mitchel  was  inter- 
viewed by  a  French  traveller,  the  Baron  Jean  Frederic  de 
Waldeck,  who  had  visited  the  West  Indies,  Panama,  and 
Guatemala,  and  had  been  attracted  to  Yucatan  by  the  rumor 
of  the  marvellous  discovery.  They  started  for  the  back- 
woods as  soon  as  the  doctor  could  disengage  himself  from 
his  professional  duties,  Waldeck  intimating  his  intention  to 
weed  and  clear  the  ruins  at  his  own  expense.  But  a  cursory 
inspection  of  the  main  casas,  their  great  extent,  their  dis- 
tance from  each  other  and  from  the  next  inhabited  town, 
and  the  intricacy  and  rankness  of  the  all-covering  and  all- 
pervading  jungle,  convinced  the  French  traveller  that  the 
work  of  restoration  would  overtask  his  private  resources. 
He  therefore  contented  himself  with  making  a  careful 
draught  of  the  accessible  buildings,  and  prepared  a  memo- 
rial to  the  Mexican  government,  which  the  doctor  under- 
took to  translate  and  forward  with  the  recommendations  of 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  33 1 

all  the  provincial  magnates  and  officials  whose  interest  could 
be  enlisted  by  his  personal  influence.  A  number  of  foreign 
merchants  and  landed  proprietors  of  Yucatan  signed  this 
petition,  and  entrusted  it  to  Don  Cesar  Pedraza  (a  relation 
of  the  general  and  presidential  candidate  of  the  same  name), 
who  was  about  to  visit  the  Mexican  capital.  But  the  Yu- 
catecos  had  been  unfortunate  in  the  choice  of  their  delegate : 
General  Pedraza  was  defeated,  and  Don  Cesar,  by  his  zeal- 
ous support  of  his  kinsman,  incurred  the  ill-will  of  the 
omnipotent  Santa  Anna,  during  whose  long  military  dic- 
tatorship and  subsequent  presidency  Mexico  was  to  all  ])ur- 
poses  an  absolute  monarchy,  Santa  Anna  retained  his  power 
by  proving  himself  a  patriot  in  some  international  transac- 
tions, but  reserved  to  himself  the  privilege  of  deciding  all 
domestic  matters  by  favoritism.  He  deposed  the  governor 
of  Yucatan,  and  in  his  place  appointed  a  man  whose  j)arti- 
san  policy  and  unscrupulous  interference  with  the  municipal 
affairs  of  the  peninsula  produced  a  ferment  of  factions  that 
kept  all  non-political  questions  in  the  background.  The 
explorations  of  Stephens  and  Catherwood  at  last  revived 
the  sensation,  and  in  the  summer  of  1845,  Senor  Lizadas, 
the  mayor  of  Merida,  was  induced  to  send  a  civil  engineer 
and  some  of  his  peons  to  Uxmal  with  a  view  of  improving 
the  wretched  roads ;  but  soon  after  the  mayor  was  worsted 
in  a  political  trial  of  strength  with  the  new  state  autocrat, 
and  had  to  take  refuge  in  New  Orleans,  while  his  real  es- 
tate was  confiscated  by  the  governor.  The  death  of  the 
latter  functionary  in  1849  enabled  Lizadas  to  return  and 
recover  his  property,  but  in  the  mean  while  the  archieolog- 
ical  excitement  had  subsided,  and  the  mouldering  ruins  were 
left  to  their  fate. 

A  year  after  the  election  of  Benito  Juarez  the  president's 
accomplished  secretary,  Lerdo  de  Tejada,  visited  Yucatan, 


332  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

and  commissioned  an  American  engineer  to  survey  a  good 
carriage-road  from  Merida  to  Uxmal  and  send  him  an  esti- 
mate of  the  probable  cost.  But  the  next  year  brought  a 
European  armada  and  a  French  surprise-party  with  torpe- 
does, siege-guns,  and  other  machinery  that  threatened  to 
multiply  the  existing  ruins  of  Mexico,  and  once  more  the 
buried  city  was  abandoned  to  the  beasts  of  the  forest.  Then 
came  the  farce  of  the  Empire,  followed  by  the  tragedy  of 
Queretaro  and  the  carnival  of  chaos  in  1867.  When  Jua- 
rez undertook  the  work  of  reconstruction  the  poor  Indian 
found  himself  beset  with  problems  of  ways  and  means 
which  he  was  glad  to  escape  by  making  his  way  to  the 
happy  hunting-grounds ;  but  his  successor,  Lerdo,  weath- 
ered the  crisis,  and  after  a  year  of  hard  work  treated  him- 
self to  a  recreation-trip  through  the  southern  provinces.  At 
Merida  he  had  a  long  interview  with  the  son  of  Don  Pancho 
Yegros,  the  surviving  member  of  Dr.  Mitchel's  party,  and 
on  his  return  to  the  capital  the  president  recommended  an 
appropriation  of  fifty  thousand  pesos  (about  fifty-five  thou- 
sand dollars),  one-half  of  the  sum  for  the  construction  of 
a  road  to  Merida  and  the  thorough  removal  of  rubbish  and 
vegetable  encumbrances  from  the  ruins,  the  interest  of  the 
remaining  half  to  be  set  aside  for  repairs,  repetitions  of 
the  weeding  process,  etc.,  and  the  salary  of  a  mayoral,  or 
government  superintendent. 

In  the  winter  of  1872  this  appropriation  was  granted, 
and  the  long-delayed  work  was  then  commenced  in  earnest. 
The  dimensions  of  the  ancient  city  were  found  to  exceed 
even  the  conjectures  of  Baron  Waldeck.  The  muralla  or 
rampart- wall  was  traced  southward  to  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
beyond  the  Rio  Macabo  and  east  to  the  foot-hills  of  the 
Sierra  de  Belonchen,  and  must  have  enclosed  an  area  of  at 
least  twelve  English  square  miles.     To  clear  such  a  space 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  333 

of  its  jungle-maze  and  the  organic  deposits  of  centuries 
would  have  exhansted  the  scanty  appropriation,  and  the 
trustees  of  the  fund  had  to  content  themselves  with  clear- 
ing the  main  buildings  and  connecting  them  by  avenues  with 
each  other  and  with  the  carriage-road  that  is  now  finished 
to  San  Lorenzo,  where  it  connects  with  the  old  military 
highway  to  Merida.  Even  thus  the  undertaking  could  only 
be  completed  by  employing  peons  or  Indian  serfs,  whom 
the  neighboring  planters  volunteered  to  furnish  gratis,  the 
trustees  only  providing  their  food  and  the  necessary  tools. 

For  the  same  work  of  destruction  and  obstruction  which 
the  fire-deluge  of  Mount  Vesuvius  accomplished  in  a  single 
night  has  here  been  eifected  by  the  silent  progress  of  arbo- 
real vegetation  and  decay  in  a  manner  which  illustrates  the 
scientific  axiom  that  in  dynamics  force  and  time  are  convert- 
ible factors.  The  mixture  of  ashes  and  porous  lava  which 
covers  the  City  of  Porapey  is  far  easier  to  remove  than  the 
tegumen  of  mould,  gnarled  roots,  and  tanglewood  that  has 
spread  itself  over  the  ruins  of  Uxmal.  Like  the  coils  of 
a  boa-constrictor,  the  flexible  arms  of  the  lianas  and  the 
cordero-vines  have  wound  themselves  arovmd  the  columns 
aiid  projecting  rocks;  nay,  forced  their  sprouts  through  the 
crevices  of  the  thickest  walls,  sending  out  lateral  shoots 
along  the  inner  surface,  so  that  often  their  grip  can  only  be 
broken  at  the  risk  of  breaking  the  building  at  the  same 
time.  Trees  were  found  which  had  incorporated  themselves 
with  a  detached  pillar  or  window-sill  after  wrenching  it 
from  its  place,  or  by  growing  completely  around  it  if  it 
proved  immovable ;  and  it  has  been~~.su pposed  that  the  re- 
markable absence  of  smaller  buildings  is  owing  to  this 
cause.  They  were  disintegrated  by  trees  and  vines  that  had 
fastened  themselves  upon  them  and  in  the  course  of  their 
growth  dislodged  them  from  their  foundations.     Only  the 


334  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

enormous  weight  of  the  larger  edifices  could  preserve  them 
from  the  same  fate.  If  much  longer,  would  have  been  a 
different  question,  but  the  buildings  which  have  so  far  stood 
their  ground  are  now  probably  safe. 

A  year  after  the  commencement  of  the  work  the  carriage- 
road  to  San  Lorenzo  was  completed,  and  the  ruins  can  now 
be  reached  by  private  conveyance  from  Sisal  in  twenty-four 
hours,  or  by  the  semi-weekly  stage  vid  Merida  in  two  days, 
the  distance  from  the  coast  being  about  eighty-five  miles. 

About  twelve  miles  southwest  of  Charley  Cortina's 
"  tower-house"  we  crossed  a  tributary  of  the  Rio  Macoba, 
and  came  in  sight  of  a  broad  terrace  that  overlooks  the 
river  and  the  undulating  woodlands  beyond.  Here  Colonel 
Rochez,  the  mayoral,  or  government  agent  en  chef,  has  col- 
lected all  the  detached  statues,  ornamented  stones,  and 
sculptured  curiosities  which  his  workmen  unearthed  in  the 
course  of  their  labors.  They  are  grouped  in  pyramids  and 
monumental  j)iles  of  various  shapes,  rather  with  a  view  to 
picturesque  effect,  as  it  seems,  than  for  the  accommodation  of 
antiquarian  students,  most  of  the  hieroglyphic  tablets  being 
stacked  up  like  slabs  in  a  slate-quarry,  with  their  inscrip- 
tions partly  or  entirely  covered. 

The  road  then  enters  the  forest  once  more,  and  the  rank 
intricacy  of  the  cordero-thickets  gave  me  an  idea  of  the 
appearance  of  this  region  in  Baron  Waldeck's  time,  and 
the  difficulty  of  uprooting  square  miles  of  such  jungles. 

"  Is  Captain  Luiz  at  home  ?"  inquired  the  Pecador,  when 
we  met  a  loafing  peon  at  the  lower  end  of  the  terrace. 

"  I  don't  know,  but  I  can  tell  you  where  you  may  find 
the  mayoral  himself.  He's  hunting  quails  in  a  ravine  be- 
hind the  Nunnery.     I'll  show  you  the  way,  if  you  like." 

"  Never  mind,  I  know  the  place.  That  fellow  means 
the  superintendent,"  exclaimed  the  Pecador, — "  old  Colonel 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  335 

Rochez,  who  has  been  in  charge  of  this  place  since  they 
built  the  new  road.  But  the  real  mayoral  is  his  son,  Captain 
Luiz:  I  believe  he  knows  more  about  these  buildings  than 
any  twenty  men  in  Yucatan.  Charley  Cortina  told  me 
that  he  saw  him  the  day  before  yesterday,  so  we  shall  find 
him  at  home,  I  guess." 

"  Captain  Luiz  Rochez  ?  Wasn't  he  down  in  Campeche 
a  few  months  ago  ?"  inquired  the  lieutenant. 

"  Yes,  he  went  down  last  May,  trying  to  get  a  few  more 
quarrymen,  but  the  government  would  not  foot  the  bill. 
The  old  colonel  should  have  gone  himself." 

"They  helped  themselves  to  military  titles  all  round,  it 
seems  ?" 

"  No,  they  earned  them  honestly,"  said  the  lieutenant. 
"  The  old  gent  was  in  charge  of  Fort  ]\Iiguel  near  Acapulco 
till  they  had  to  retire  him  on  account  of  his  deafness,  and 
his  son  used  to  belong  to  the  Second  Artillery,  and  had  the 
name  of  being  the  best  engineer  in  the  regiment.  Up  in 
Matamoras  he  got  mixed  up  in  the  Escobedo  rebellion,  and 
they  made  him  resign,  I  believe, — probably  because  he 
wouldn't  bribe  the  court-martial.  He  was  too  much  of  a 
gentleman  for  the  frontier  service,  anyhow.  He  would  be 
in  his  right  element  here  if  the  pay  wasn't  so  confounded 
small." 

"  He  has  to  share  it  with  his  father,  T  presume?" 

"  No,  the  government  doesn't  recognize  him  at  all :  they 
merely  tolerate  him  because  the  old  man  needs  an  assistant. 
He  generally  shows  the  visitors  around,  and  is  the  most 
obliging  and  modest  fellow  you  ever  saw,  tiiough  his  cir- 
cumstances do  not  always  permit  him  to  decline  a  compen- 
sation." 

"  Just  wait  here,"  said  tlie  Pecador,  when  we  reached  one 
of  the  larger  casas :  "  I'm  going  to  the  lodge  to  sec  what 


336  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

provisions  they  have  on  board.  We  can  take  our  dinner 
here,  and  camp  in  the  upper  story :  it's  a  great  deal  more 
comfortable  than  their  narrow  guest-rooms.  The  captain 
will  soon  be  here/'  said  he,  when  he  returned  with  a  basket- 
ful of  yams  and  corn  cakes  :  "  he  is  cleaning  a  ditch  down 
in  the  bottom,  and  they  promised  to  send  him  up  as  soon 
as  he  comes  home." 

The  ground-floor  of  our  casa  was  a  large  hall,  divided 
by  a  bar  of  debris  from  a  sort  of  antechamber  with  a  nar- 
row window  in  the  farther  corner,  where  we  lighted  our 
fire  on  a  platform  of  rubbish  and  broad  flags.  We  had 
just  toasted  our  maize  cakes  when  a  merry  "Halloo!"  in 
the  front  hall  announced  the  arrival  of  the  captain.  "  Don't 
let  me  disturb  you,  gentlemen,"  said  he,  when  he  clambered 
into  our  refectory :  "  you  are  disturbed  enough  by  the 
smoke,  I  see.  Halloo,  Don  Nicolas,"  recognizing  i\\& 
guide.  "  Now,  you  have  been  travelling  all  over  Yucatan, 
have  you  ever  seen  a  trace  of  a  chimney  or  fireplace  about 
any  of  the  old  casas  ?  I  never  did  :  they  must  have  swal- 
lowed their  meat  raw  in  those  times." 

"Maybe  they  roasted  their  beef  in  the  sun,"  said  the 
Pecador.  "  Why,  in  the  name  of  reason,  don't  you  keep 
some  ice  on  hand,  Don  Luiz  ?  There  would  be  some  in- 
ducement to  patronize  your  hotel." 

"I'm  sorry  you  didn't  say  so  before,"  laughed  the  captain. 
"  Our  visitors  are  mostly  Yankees,  you  see,  and  after  all 
you  told  us  about  their  smartness  we  never  doubted  that 
they  were  clever  enough  to  make  their  own  ice.  Well,  this 
afternoon  you  can't  complain  about  the  weather,"  said  he, 
when  we  had  finished  our  dessert :  "  so,  if  the  gentlemen 
are  ready,  we  can  begin  with  tlie  principal  casas,  and  leave 
the  suburbs  until  to-morrow :  the  bush  is  a  little  wet  yet 
after  last  night's  rain." 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  337 

We  left  our  baggage  in  the  antechamber,  and  tethered 
our  mules  on  the  north  side  of  the  building  in  a  sort  of 
moat  with  plenty  of  grass  and  Aveeds.  Seen  from  the  dis- 
tance, our  casa  resembled  a  Spanish  inn  with  a  Moorish 
courtyard  below  and  a  row  of  small  bedrooms  al)ove,  but 
in  its  original  dimensions  it  seemed  to  have  extended  along 
the  entire  length  of  the  moat,  which  is  flanked  with  the 
vestiges  of  a  foundation-wall  for  a  distance  of  more  than 
sixty  yards  beyond  the  present  east  end  of  the  building. 
The  woods  behind  the  moat  are  intersected  by  a  similar 
wall,  which  at  different  places  rises  to  a  height  of  twenty 
feet.  "  El  Quartel — the  Barracks — we  call  this  building," 
said  the  captain :  "  the  large  hall  below  is  supposed  to  be 
the  drill-shed." 

No  other  ruins  were  in  sight,  but  on  the  summit  of  a 
rock-strewn  acclivity  the  woods  opened  and  revealed  a  gray- 
ish stone  pile  rising  like  a  mountain  rather  than  like  a 
building  from  a  wilderness  of  weeds  and  debris,  but  assum- 
ing more  symmetrical  outlines  as  the  road  approaclies.  A 
quadrangular  esplanade,  with  a  range  of  stone  steps,  leads 
up  to  a  narrow  terrace  that  forms  the  foundation  of  a 
mound  of  cyclopean  blocks,  house-sliaped,  but  craggy  and 
cliflP-like  from  the  massiveness  of  the  pillars  and  walls. 
The  entire  structure  rising  to  a  height  of  eighty -four  feet, 
with  a  fa9ade  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  and  a  circum- 
ference of  eight  hundred  feet,  it  stands  there  with  its  open 
and  desolate  doors  like  an  antediluvian  skeleton — "La 
Casa  del  Gobernador,  the  most  massive,  though  not  the 
highest,  of  the  main  buildings,"  says  our  guide. 

At  Uxmal  the  Spaniards  have  illustrated  that  talent  for 
nomenclature  which  has  made  them  sucli  useful  pioneers  in 
the  river-  and  mountain-labyrinths  of  the  New  World.  All 
the  houses,  temples,  and  caves,  and  even  the  more  consjMc- 


338  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

uous  statues,  have  their  names,  most  of  them  singularly 
appropriate  as  well  as  pretty.  If  Yucatan  was  a  province 
of  prehistoric  Mexico,  and  Uxmal  the  state  capital,  the 
house  on  the  double  terrace  must  have  been  the  residence 
of  the  governor.  These  high  portals  with  their  carved  col- 
umns, and  these  sculptured  walls,  were  not  built  for  a 
granary  or  a  fort,  and  the  character  of  the  bas-reliefs,  as 
well  as  the  absence  of  altars  and  idols,  makes  it  unlikely 
that  the  edifice  was  a  temple. 

From  the  upper  terrace  to  the  third  story  the  walls  are 
entirely  covered  with  ornaments  that  might  be  described  as 
sculptured  mosaic,  each  figure  being  formed  by  a  combi- 
nation of  carved  stones.  These  sculptures  represent  human 
heads,  colossal  figures,  fantastic  birds  and  quadrupeds,  and 
every  variety  of  arabesques,  which,  viewed  at  a  certain 
angle,  give  the  walls  the  appearance  of  those  rough-hewn 
granite  blocks  our  architects  love  to  display  over  the  en- 
trance of  a  tunnel  or  massive  gateway.  The  lower  halls 
are  partly  obstructed  by  a  pile  of  debris,  for  the  range  of 
stairs  leading  to  the  second  floor  has  fallen  down,  and  has 
been  replaced  by  a  wooden  ladder.  The  most  interesting 
rooms  are  on  the  second  and  third  floors,  which  also  connect 
with  outer  galleries  bordered  by  long  balustrades  of  graceful 
fretwork.  According  to  the  measurements  of  Seiior  De- 
vegas,  the  walls  of  these  two  stories  contain  thirty-four 
hundred  yards — or  nearly  two  English  miles — of  bas-relief, 
most  of  them  at  a  height  of  about  four  feet  from  the  floor, 
and  running  along  the  wall  in  an  unbroken  row,  the  lower 
border  being  on  a  line  with  the  lintels  of  the  windows  and 
doors.  These  decorations  are  often  coarse  in  execution  and 
defective  in  the  details  of  design,  but  the  total  impression 
is  nevertheless  strangely  pleasing.  There  are  long  proces- 
sions of  men-at-arms,  groups  of  animals  and  stars, — the 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  339 

latter  perhaps  astrological  symbols, — and  countless  faces 
{'portraits,  our  guide  called  them)  in  profile,  some  of  them 
distinguished  by  a  turban-like  head-dress.  One  of  the 
more  elaborate  groups  represents  a  warrior  promenading 
on  a  row  of  prostrate  bodies,  probably  a  symbol  of  royal 
power  if  not  a  memorial  of  a  martial  triumph.  Another 
shows  a  procession  of  mutilated  men,  one-legged,  armless,  or 
entirely  dismembered,  which  our  cicerone  supposed  to  be  a 
regiment  of  veterans  returning  from  war,  but  w^hich  may 
possibly  have  had  an  allegorical  significance.  In  one  of 
the  third-story  rooms  a  portion  of  the  floor  is  paved  with 
a  coarse  mosaic  representing  a  battle  between  light-armed 
and  naked  giants  and  warriors  of  smaller  stature,  but  well 
equipped  with  a  panoply  of  heavy  arms.  The  faces  and 
attitudes  of  the  antagonists  are  well  distinguished,  and  the 
whole  conveys  the  impression  of  having  been  suggested  by 
an  actual  occurrence,  perhaps  an  encounter  between  the 
citizen-soldiers  of  the  ancient  empire  and  some  savage  tribe 
of  the  northern  forests.  It  has  been  observed  that  the 
black  marble  which  is  used  in  the  composition  of  these  and 
other  mosaics  is  not  found  anywhere  in  Yucatan,  and  must 
have  been  brought  from  Central  Mexico,  if  not  from  Cuba. 
Before  the  arrival  of  the  present  superintendent  this 
building  was  infested  with  every  possible  variety  of  creep- 
ers and  air-plants :  in  the  basement  their  growth  was  some- 
what checked  by  lack  of  sunshine,  but  in  the  upper 
stories  they  formed  a  continuous  tai)estry  along  the  walls  of 
every  apartment,  and  vestiges  of  these  expletive  decorations 
still  defy  the  pruning-hook  of  the  mayoral.  The  arm  of 
an  idol  here  and  there  or  the  head  of  a  long-snouted  animal 
is  wreathed  with  leaves  like  a  thyrsus-staff,  and  many  of 
the  coarse  arabesques  around  the  larger  retrato.i  are  mingled 
with  the  delicate  folioles  of  a  twining  grenadilla.     With  a 


340  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

sort  of  vegetable  instinct,  most  of  these  intruders  have 
pierced  the  walls  at  places  where  the  convolution  of  their 
tendrils  is  favored  by  a  pilaster  or  the  pi'otuberances  of  a 
bas-relief. 

The  next  turn  of  the  road  leads  to  the  plaza,  or  market- 
square,  a  partly-cleared  field  of  about  sixty  acres,  offering  a 
view  of  the  three  largest  and  most  interesting  buildings  in 
Uxmal, — the  Casa  de  las  Monjas,  the  Paloraal,  and  the  Casa 
del  Enano.  The  largest  of  these — and,  indeed,  the  largest 
architectural  relic  of  our  continent — is  the  Casa  de  las 
Monjas,  the  "  House  of  the  Nuns,"  so  called  from  the  vast 
number  of  little  cell-like  apartments.  There  are  eighty- 
seven  larger  and  half  a  hundred  smaller  rooms,  besides 
extensive  corridors  and  several  halls,  distributed  over  a 
three-story  building  of  four  wings,  which  enclose  what  may 
have  been  a  spacious  courtyard,  but  now  resembles  a  neg- 
lected garden. 

Entering  from  the  north,  you  pass  through  a  gateway 
supported  by  pillars  of  enormous  thickness,  and  an  inner 
vestibule  that  communicates  with  a  broad  gallery  or  interior 
veranda,  stone-paved  and  inviting  by  the  grotto-like  cool- 
ness of  its  shady  recesses.  The  builders  of  this  city  were 
not  acquainted  with  the  keystone  arch,  but  formed  their 
vaults  by  overlapping  stones,  held  in  place  by  the  weight 
of  the  superstructure  and  covered  with  a  large  slab  or  with 
lintels  of  wood,  the  latter  being  found  over  every  door  and 
window  whose  horizontal  diameter  exceeds  two  feet.  The 
wood  used  for  these  lintels  is  of  iron  toughness  and  texture, 
and  has  been  identified  witli  a  species  of  lignum-vit£e  that 
is  found  in  the  mountains  of  Guatemala,  but  nowhere  in 
Yucatan  or  Eastern  Mexico.  From  the  middle  of  the  first 
flight  of  steps  upward  the  walls  are  decorated  with  glaring 
pictures,  checkered  and  polychromatic  like  a  collection  of 


THE  AMERICAN   POMPEII. 


.'Ul 


SOUTH  "WALL  OF  CASA  DE  LAS  MONJAS. 


butterflies,  though  a  pale  carmine  and  a  brilliant  golden 
yellow  predominate.  Frescoes  ti)e  mayoral  calls  them,  but 
the  process  of  their  jjroduction  seems  to  have  involved  a 
preliminary  plastering  of  the  walls  with  a  grayish-brown 

22 


342  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

substance  that  makes  an  effective  foil  for  the  brighter  tints, 
and  the  employment  of  a  very  durable  varnish  that  would 
explain  the  freshness  and  the  metallic  lustre  of  some  of  the 
colors.  On  the  second  floor  the  cells  begin,  and  monopolize 
the  two  larger  wings  of  that  story.  Few  of  them  are  pro- 
vided with  more  than  one  aperture,  either  a  door  communi- 
cating with  the  corridor  or  a  window  opening  upon  the  outer 
gallery,  their  average  size  being  five  yards  square  by  four 
high.  Many  cells  in  the  second  story  are  paved  with  pol- 
ished and  variegated  marble  slabs,  while  the  walls  opposite 
the  entrance  are  covered  with  pictures ;  and  if  the  dwelling 
was  a  nunnery  the  convent  rules  cannot  have  been  very  as- 
cetic, the  character  of  these  retratos  being  decidedly  secular, 
— so  much  so,  indeed,  that  some  of  the  artists  must  have 
belonged  to  what  poor  Southey  called  the  "  Satanic  School." 
The  windows  are  festooned  with  rock-ivy  and  grenadilla- 
vines  with  small  red  pipe-flowers,  and  in  one  of  the  lower 
rooms  an  abeto-bush,  a  species  of  juniper,  has  forced  its  way 
through  the  masonry  of  the  floor  and  of  a  sort  of  stone  bench 
near  the  window,  rising  from  the  flags  like  a  Christmas-tree 
from  a  table. 

All  the  cornices  and  window-sills  of  these  countless 
chambers,  all  the  balustrades  of  the  long  galleries  and  the 
balconies  overhanging  the  court,  are  ornamented  with  bas- 
relief  figures,  colored  stuccoes,  and  sculptured  mosaic,  carved 
with  an  unrivalled  richness  and  variety  of  detail ;  and  if  it 
is  true  that  a  portion  of  the  material  was  brought  from  a 
great  distance,  the  treasures  of  a  wealthy  empire  must  have 
been  lavished  on  tiie  Casa  de  las  Monjas.  Senor  Escalante, 
an  intelligent  Mexican  architect,  estimates  that  even  with 
all  the  raw  material  on  hand  the  present  cost  of  such  a 
building  would  exceed  four  million  piastres,  and  thinks 
that  the  carvings  of  some  of  the  larger  pillars  would  em- 


I 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII. 


343 


ploy  a  hardworking  statuary  for  six  months.  Bats  are  now 
the  only  tenants  of  this  sculptured  Coliseum,  since  a  colony  of 
monos  chicos,  or  Mexican  raccoons,  that  had  established  them- 
selves in  the  basement,  were  ejected  by  order  of  the  mayoral. 


In  a  grove  of  mango-trees  that  were 
spared  on  account  of  their  edible  fruit, 
and  hardly  fifty  yards  from  the  Nunnery,  stands  the  Palo- 
mal,  or  "  Dove-cote,"  a  large  but  plain  and  artless  edifice 
that  received  its  name  from  the  number  of  little  niches  in  the 
masonry  of  the  inner  walls  which  the  ready  imagination  of 


344  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

the  natives  compared  to  pigeon-holes.  Baron  Waldeck 
believed  that  the  Palomal  was  a  prison,  but  its  proximity  to 
a  royal  palace  makes  it  more  likely  that  it  was  a  guard-house 
and  the  cellular  apartments  the  soldiers'  dormitories. 

Near  the  front  gate  of  the  Palomal  stands — or  rather 
leans — an  obelisk,  a  large  sculptured  pillar  which  the  wood- 
cutters discovered  in  the  midst  of  a  thicket  of  rhexia  thorns. 
South  and  southwest  of  the  Pigeon-house  the  plain  is  cov- 
ered with  continuous  woods,  clumj)s  of  wax-jxalms  waving 
over  dense  thickets  of  figs  and  euphorbias  that  obliterate 
the  undulations  of  the  soil  and  almost  overarch  the  valley 
of  the  Rio  Macoba.  To  a  native  of  the  Old  World  the 
luxuriance  of  this  vegetation  in  the  neighborhood  of  such 
ruins  appears  strangely  anomalous,  like  tufts  of  flowers 
rising  from  a  snowbank  or  a  fountain  from  the  desert  sand. 
Moreover,  the  forests  of  Uxmal  do  not  exhibit  the  charac- 
teristics of  a  spontaneous  second  growth — dwarfed  trees 
and  sun-scorched  weeds :  many  of  the  tree-clumps  are  as 
gigantic  and  their  arcades  as  leafy  as  if  shade-loving  birds 
had  been  their  only  inhabitants  since  the  birth  of  the 
Western  continent. 

As  we  passed  through  the  mango-coppice  an  obstreperous 
bird  of  the  shrike  species,  that  liad  followed  us  from  the 
Nunnery,  perched  on  a  bough  in  front  of  us,  as  if  resolved 
to  attract  our  attention,  and  chattered  away  with  a  voice 
that  expressed  indignation  as  plainly  as  the  barking  of  an 
enraged  cur. 

"  There  he  is  again  !"  said  the  Pecador.  ''  I  threw  a 
stone  at  this  same  chap  when  I  was  here  last  March,  and  I 
do  believe  he  has  been  screaming  ever  since." 

"  He  seems  to  have  his  nest  in  that  thicket." 

"  No,  he  does  not  want  strangers  to  come  near  these  build- 
ings at  all,"  said  the  captain  :  "  he  will  follow  you  from  bush 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII. 


346 


THE    TOWN-CRIER. 


to  bush  if  you  don't  drive  liini  away.  El  Pregonero  (the  town- 
crier)  our  Indians  call  him." 

Proceeding  southward 
and  upward,  we  reach 
the  platform  of  a  little 
hill,  and  are  brought 
face  to  face  with  a  dome- 
like pile  of  colossal  di- 
mensions, the  Casa  del 
Enano,  or  "  House  of  the 
Dwarf,"  so  called  from 
the  narrowness  of  the 
sally-port,  which  is,  in 

fact,  a  niere  loophole  in  what  originally  may  have  been  tlie 
second  story,  the  basement  having  been  buried  by  aval- 
anches of  debris  that  have  tumbled  from  the  decaying 
walls.  A  tower  encircled  by  galleries  that  contract  toward 
the  top  is  the  nucleus  of  this  pile,  and  leads  to  a  circular 
platform  of  about  forty  yards  in  circumference.  The 
strength  of  this  central  tower  has  supported  tlie  l)uilding, 
but  the  galleries  with  their  substructures  have  collapsed  all 
around,  and  give  to  the  whole  the  appearance  of  a  conical 
mound  covered  with  a  wilderness  of  broken  fragments  and 
weeds.  Goats,  and  even  cows,  frequent  the  slopes  of  this 
artificial  hill,  and  make  their  way  to  the  very  top,  where 
mountain-breezes  and  patclies  of  rank  wall-grass  reward 
them  for  the  somewhat  arduous  ascent. 

The  interior  of  the  edifice  forms  a  striking  contrast  to 
this  rustic  outside.  After  passing  (on  all-fours)  tlirough 
,the  loophole  above  mentioned  the  visitor  finds  himself  in 
the  vestibule  of  the  tower-hall,  which  he  enters  through  a 
portal  of  pillar-like  buttresses.  This  hall  seems  ibi-merly 
to  have  been  lighted  from  above,  but  the  wall  on  the  south 


346  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

side  is  now  full  of  cracks  and  holes,  which  serve  as  so  many- 
windows,  but  have  admitted  rain  as  well  as  sunshine,  as  at- 
tested by  a  considerable  pool  at  the  lower  end  of  the  sloping 
floor.  The  wall  on  the  west  side  rises  like  a  terrace  or  a 
range  of  colossal  stairs,  tier  above  tier,  receding  a  yard  and 
a  half  after  every  three  yards  of  elevation.  The  upper 
tier  is  a  shapeless  mass  of  ruins,  connected  with  the  ceiling 
and  the  opposite  walls  by  a  network  of  liana-coils,  some  of 
which  have  become  detached  with  the  crumbling  stones  and 
hang  across  the  hall  like  tight-ropes  in  a  circus-tent.  But 
farther  down  the  vertical  surfaces  of  the  terrace  are  covered 
with  hieroglyphics,  while  the  intermediate  levels  aiford  seats 
for  a  large  assembly  of  "  idols,"  as  the  Spaniards  call  them 
indiscriminately,  though  the  plurality  of  these  shapes  seems 
to  have  been  suggested  by  the  exigencies  of  symmetry,  since 
they  reappear  at  equal  intervals  from  a  common  centre,  and 
may  have  been  nothing  but  architectural  extravaganzas,  like 
the  caryatides  and  griffins  of  our  Gothic  chapels.  The  hu- 
man— or  rather  anthropoid — shapes  loei^e  idols,  to  judge  by 
their  central  positions  and  heroic  proportions,  and  some  of 
them  are  as  composite,  though  not  quite  as  monstrous,  as 
the  divinities  of  a  Hindoo  pagoda. 

On  a  special  pedestal  about  four  feet  above  the  floor  sits 
a  four-armed  giant  with  a  disproportionately  large  but  not 
altogether  repulsive  face,  and  with  a  corselet  that  resembles 
the  scaly  hide  of  a  crocodile.  Two  of  his  arms  are  akimbo  : 
the  other  pair  are  extended,  with  the  palms  of  the  hands 
down,  as  if  in  the  act  of  delivering  a  benediction.  Just 
above  him,  on  the  third  terrace,  stands  the  semi-torso  of  a 
youth  with  a  coronet  of  spikes  or  rays  upon  his  head  and  a 
sort  of  rosary  wound  about  his  waist.  Both  his  arms  are 
broken  oif  at  the  elbow,  but  seem  to  have  been  lifted  above 
his  head  or  to  have  supported  a  shield,  like  a  similar  but 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII. 


347 


THE    HOUSE    OF    THE    DWARF. 


smaller  statue  farther  up.  The  figure  is  supposal  to  he  a 
symbol  of  the  Chasca,  or  evening  star,  whose  statues  in  the 
old  Peruvian  temples  were  distinguished  by  a  halo  of  ver- 
tical rays.  In  tiie  Jiienagerie  of  animals  and  animal  frag- 
ments there  are  six  elephants'  licads,  distributed  in  the  cor- 
ners of  three  successive  tiers.     Whatever  they  arc  intended 


348  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

to  represent,  the  curled  and  tapering  trunks  and  pendent 
ears  are  decidedly  elephantine,  and  even  the  small  piggish 
eyes  are  characteristic  of  pachyderms,  though  it  ought  to 
l)e  mentioned  that  the  tusks  are  uniformly  omitted.  These 
heads  have  caused  a  good  deal  of  curious  speculation,  since 
even  the  illiterate  Yucatecos  know  that  only  imported  ele- 
phants have  ever  displayed  their  trunks  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  Did  the  fauna  of  prehistoric  Mexico  include 
elephants,  or  had  the  builders  of  this  city  preserved  tradi- 
tions of  a  Transatlantic  fatherland, — India,  Siam,  or  South- 
ern Africa?  Or  may  it  be  possible  that  ante-Columbian 
visitors  from  the  East  had  carried  elephants,  or  the  pictures 
or  descriptions  of  such  animals,  to  the  Western  World  ? 
Quien  sabe  f  But  it  would  certainly  be  curious  if  unas- 
sisted fancy  had  produced  such  congruous  combinations. 

The  hieroglyphics  that  alternate  with  the  sculptured 
rows  are  subdivided  by  vertical  mouldings  at  irregular 
intervals,  forming  longer  or  shorter  quadrangles  that  seem 
to  enclose  separate  inscriptions.  Many  of  these  mouldings 
are  ornamented  with  a  sort  of  arabesque,  while  the  elaborate 
characters  are  strongly  suggestive  of  an  important  meaning. 
Different  recent  visitors  have  copied  such  inscriptions  in  ex- 
tenso,  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  their  labors  have  been  in  vain : 
the  key  to  that  picturesque  alphabet  has  been  lost  forever. 

The  ghost-ridden  natives  give  the  casas  a  wide  berth,  but 
the  House  of  the  Dwarf  is  an  object  of  their  especial  dread. 
Mezequenho,  the  Good  Spirit,  was  never  properly  wor- 
shipped by  the  citizens  of  Uxmal,  they  say  ;  and  when  the 
boundary  between  his  patience  and  his  wrath  was  passed  he 
turned  the  entire  })opulation  into  stone  and  confined  them 
in  this  building.  But  after  sunset  the  petrified  assembly 
revives,  and  woe  to  the  wight  that  passes  the  Casa  del  Enano 
in  a  moonless  night !    The  north  side  of  the  building  looks. 


I 


THE   AMERICAN  POMPEII.  349 

indeed,  as  fantastic  as  any  castle  in  Fairydom  :  a  lofty  dome, 
crowned  with  a  tuft  of  vegetation  not  unlike  a  colossal  cac- 
tus or  a  gigantic  skull  with  a  wisp  of  hair  standing  on  end 
and  bristling  in  the  breeze,  while  the  shroud  of  crecj^ers 
forms  a  compact  mass  of  foliage  from  the  middle  terrace — 
i.e.,  from  a  height  of  sixty-five  feet — to  the  ground,  recall- 
ing the  legend  of  Dornroschen's  Burg  circumvallated  with 
a  rampart  of  wildering  roses. 

Southwest  of  the  Casa  del  Enano  there  are  different 
smaller  buildings,  too  rude  and  artless  or  too  far  advanced 
in  decay  to  merit  a  separate  description,  though  I  might 
mention  the  Casa  de  la  Vieja,  the  "  House  of  the  Old 
Woman,"  an  ivy-mantled,  snug  little  cottage  with  a  balcony 
and  a  single  alcove;  and  the  Casa  Cerrada,  or  "Closed 
House,"  a  cubic  mass  of  masonry  without  any  opening 
whatever, — a  watch-tower,  perha})S,  or  a  mausoleum. 

Besides  these  buildings  the  excavations  have  brought  to 
light  a  considerable  number  of  detached  statues,  terraces, 
paved  courtyards,  etc.,  and  some  miscellaneous  objects  whose 
significance  is  as  problematic  as  that  of  the  hieroglyphics. 
There  are  an  amphitheatre  and  an  artificial  lake,  both  ex- 
cavated from  the  solid  rock;  a  "tennis-court"  or  gymna- 
sium, paved  and  encircled  by  a  low  wall ;  and  a  nameless 
rotunda  with  fragments  of  carved  columns.  On  an  artifi- 
cial mound  northeast  of  the  Casa  Cerrada  stands  a  double- 
headed  sphinx,  twelve  feet  long  and  five  feet  high,  and  a 
little  farther  back  a  six-sided  nondescript  cut  from  a  single 
block  and  with  a  polished  surface  about  eight  feet  square. 
Some  American  merchants  from  Sisal  had  the  bad  taste  to 
christen  it  the  "Altar  of  Abraham,"  and  the  mayoral,  in 
commemoration  of  their  visit,  now  calls  it  the  "Altar  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,"  which  is  certainly  worse;  but  Lincoln 
is  popular  in  Mexico. 


350  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  open-air  museum  on  the 
river-terrace,  where  the  superintendent  has  amassed  a  ship- 
load of  idols  and  sculptured  tablets.  He  boasts  that  he 
has  hieroglyphic  slabs  enough  now  to  roof  the  largest 
building  in  Yucatan,  and  the  excavations  which  are  still 
progressing  will  probably  increase  his  collection. 

Neither  the  descent  of  man  nor  the  purpose  of  the  Pyra- 
mids is  shrouded  in  deeper  mystery  than  the  origin  of  these 
ruins.  All  we  know  with  certainty  is  this :  that  they  an- 
tedate the  advent  of  Columbus  by  a  period  which  reaches 
far  beyond  the  oldest  records  and  traditions  of  the  American 
aborigines,  for  that  Uxmal  was  not  built  by  the  Aztecs  is 
positively  demonstrated  by  architectural  and  archaeological 
evidence,  and  indirectly  by  the  entire  absence  of  local 
tradition. 

Senor  Simon  Escalante,  of  Puebla,  who  has  devoted  a 
lifetime  to  the  study  of  Mexican  antiquities,  adduces  a  long 
list  of  technical  arguments  against  the  alleged  identity  of 
the  structure,  sculpture,  and  system  of  hieroglyphics  of  these 
buildings  with  those  of  the  Peruvians  and  North  Mexican 
temples,  of  which  I  can  quote  only  a  few,  and  perhaps  not 
the  most  conclusive  ones.  The  Casa  del  Gobernador,  the 
Nunnery,  and  the  Dome  (House  of  the  Dwarfj  contain 
columns,  entablatures,  and  stuccoes  which  are  found  nowhere 
else  in  America  Relicta ;  and  a  careful  comparison  of  the 
hieroglyphic  systems  of  Uxmal  and  Central  Mexico  has 
established  the  fact  that  they  bear  no  more  resemblance  to 
each  other  than  either  bears  to  those  of  Luxor  and  Nineveh. 
Besides,  all  the  Indian  temples  and  palaces  from  Peru  to 
the  Rio  Gila  are  dwarfed  in  comparison  with  the  gigantic 
piles  of  the  Yucatan  city.  The  Nunnery  alone  would 
furnish  cut  stones  enough  to  reconstruct  all  the  castles  of 
the  old  Mexican  capital  and  all  her  temples,  which  rarely 


I 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  351 

exceeded  forty  yards  in  length,  and  never  contained  more 
than  two  stories,  if  we  except  the  teocallis  or  sacrificial 
mounds,  which  were  simply  terraced  mud-piles  with  a  super- 
structure of  stone  slabs  or  bricks. 

It  seems  also  certain  that  the  founders  of  Uxmal  were 
familiar  with  the  manufacture  and  use  of  metal  implements, 
for  their  stonework  does  not  present  the  chopped  appearance 
of  the  Mexican  masonry,  cut  with  chisels  of  flint  and  ob- 
sidian ;  and  to  produce  the  elaborate  cornices  and  mosaics 
in  the  Governor's  House  with  such  brittle  tools  would,  as 
the  Puebla  antiquarian  expresses  it,  "  snap  the  sinews  of 
human  patience." 

Some  of  the  foundation-walls  and  terraces  in  West  Uxmal 
were  covered  with  a  stratum  of  vegetable  mould  which 
could  hardly  have  been  formed  in  less  than  a  millennium, 
even  if  we  allow  for  the  rapidity  of  organic  development 
and  decay  in  a  tropical  coast-region,  while  trees  with  the 
self-registered  record  of  their  age  in  their  texture  have 
grown  from  rubbish-mounds  where  they  must  have  taken 
root  before  the  Spaniards  had  gained  a  Ibothold  in  America 
or  the  Visigoths  in  Spain. 

The  argument  derived  .from  the  absence  of  historical 
records  has  been  met  with  the  remark  that  the  Old  World 
too  has  ruins  the  record  of  whose  origin  has  been  lost,  not 
in  the  cloudland  of  the  Dark  Ages,  but  in  the  confusion  of 
wars  and  conquests  of  comparatively  recent  date.  But  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  all  such  ruins  are  the  primitive 
relics  of  a  primitive  race,  like  Stonehenge,  the  Hunengrdbe)- 
of  Westphalia,  or  the  cairns  of  Ireland  and  Western  Nor- 
mandy, while  the  monuments  of  more  civilized  nations 
havBx transmitted,  even  by  oral  traditions,  a  record  of  their 
construction  and  destruction  which  can  only  be  obliterated 
by  a  succession  of  ages.      The  traditions  of  Mexico  date 


352 


SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 


back  to  remote  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  but  about  a 
vast  and  wealthy  city  in  Western  Yucatan  they  are  as  silent 
as  the  annals  of  the  Conquistadores.  The  ruins  themselves 
have  never  betrayed  their  secret. 

Before  the  sun  went  down  we  mounted  the  Casa  del 
Enano  and  rummaged  the  pile  of  broken  statues  on  the 
upper  terrace  till  the  chill  of  the  evening  air  admonished 
us  to  return  to  the  Barracks. 

"  No  wonder  your  Indians  believe  in  ghosts/'  said  the 
lieutenant,  when  we  passed  a  little  mound  in  the  open  woods. 

"  Look  up  there  !  —  a 
spectre  stalking  around 
in  broad  daylight." 

On  the  mound  grazed 
a  horse, — the  remains 
of  a  horse,  I  should  say, 
the  component  parts  of 
the  animal's  body  being 
reduced  to  a  framework 
of  bones  and  a  very 
thin  tegumen  of  hide 
and  hair, — an  equine 
skeleton  endowed  with 
the  faculty  of  locomo- 
tion. 

"Yes,  that's  one  of 
our  antiquarian  curios- 
ities," said  the  captain. 
"  Nobody  knows  where 
he  comes  from,  but  we  suspect  him  of  being  the  identical 
steed  that  ran  away  from  Balboa  in  the  battle  of  Chiapas, 
though  my  father  holds  that  he  must  be  one  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan horses  that  were  rewarded  with  immortality  for 


THE    OLDEST    INHABITANT. 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  353 

having  carried  the  Prophet.  We  call  him  '  the  oldest  in- 
habitant/ and  he  was  certainly  grazing  in  Uxmal  before  any 
white  man  cooked  his  dinner  in  tiie  casas.  Tlierc  he  goes. 
Precisely  at  the  same  time  every  night  he  walks  to  his 
stable  in  the  Palomal,  and  stays  there  till  sunrise,  leaning 
against  the  wall  with  his  eyes  half  shut.  He  sleeps  in  the 
daytime  too  :  I  have  found  him  leaning  against  a  tree  and 
pricking  up  his  ears  in  his  dreams.  I  wonder  what  he 
hears?  He  might  tell  ns  something  about  Uxmal  if  he 
could  talk." 

"  Do  you  ever  feed  him  ?" 

"  Oh,  he  finds  all  the  feed  he  wants, — he  generally  stays 
around  the  western  casas, — but  it  puzzles  us  all  to  explain 
where  he  gets  his  water  from.  We  never  saw  him  at  the 
creek:  he  must  know  the  whereabouts  of  a  spring  which 
nobody  else  has  discovered  yet." 

Returning  to  the  Quartel,  we  found  a  good  supply  of 
firewood  in  one  of  the  upper  rooms,  where  a  broken  alcove 
had  been  fashioned  into  a  sort  of  chimney,  and  the  captain 
promised  to  get  us  a  few  extra  blankets,  as  the  cool  night 
wind  threatened  to  degenerate  into  a  regular  borasso,  or 
"  norther,"  which  here  often  follows  upon  a  heavy  rain. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  strain  of  a  harp  ranks  first  among 
the  acoustic  aids  to  inspiration,  but  it  is  more  certain  that, 
to  a  Northlander's  ear  at  least,  no  other  sound  in  the  infinite 
scale  of  Nature  and  art  is  more  promotive  of  domestic  com- 
fort than  the  music  of  a  good  crackling  wood -fire.  As  soon 
as  the  recess  of  our  alcove  resounded  with  that  hyperborean 
anthem  we  felt  at  home,  and  soon  all  earthly  cares  were 
merged  in  the  pleasant  occupation  of  renewing  the  supply 
of  fuel  from  time  to  time. 

The  mayoral  sent  us  a  basketful  of  cakes  and  plantains, 
excusing  himself  with  the  state  of  the  weather  and  of  his 


354  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

rheumatic  knee,  but  Captain  Luiz  returned  in  person,  and, 
having  met  our  mozo  in  the  basement,  complimented  us  on 
our  success  in  overcoming  the  national  prejudice  of  that 
youth.  "  As  a  rule,  their  superstition  is  incurable,"  said  he. 
"  When  we  went  to  work  on  the  western  casas  our  laborers 
would  rather  forego  their  dinner  and  their  siesta  than  enter 
the  buildings  after  dark.  Their  ghost-horror  overcomes 
every  other  kind  of  fear :  they  would  sooner  make  a  circuit 
through  a  panther-jungle  than  take  a  short  cut  through 
the  haunted  ruins." 

"  That  seems  to  account  for  tlieir  reticence.  Don't  you 
think  they  have  known  something  about  this  place  before 
its  so-called  discovery  by  the  whites  ?" 

"  I  am  quite  sure  of  it.  They  have  known  it  all  along, 
and  would  have  kept  the  secret  for  another  century  or  two. 
And  even  without  any  superstitious  motive." 

"  Why,  what  other  reason  could  they  have  to  conceal  it?" 

"  I  don't  know ;  but  the  matter  is  this  :  you  and  I  would 
certainly  see  twenty  reasons  for  not  concealing  it,  but  if  an 
Indian  could  see  any  of  them  is  a  different  question.  You 
know,  perhaps,  what  word  our  old  official  records  used  in 
referring  to  the  Indians  :  gente  sin  razon, — creatures  devoid 
of  reason.  Their  character  may  have  changed  since  the 
Conquest,  but  so  nmch  is  certain :  some  human  attributes 
seems  to  have  become  extinct  in  their  natures  :  desire  of 
knowledge,  for  instance,  and  sympathy  with  the  intellectual 
pursuits  of  others.  If  a  Yucatan  Indian  should  discover 
Paradise  or  the  Fountain  of  Eternal  Youth,  or  if  a  confiding 
spirit  had  betrayed  the  secret  of  futurity,  he  would  neither 
say  a  word  about  it  nor  take  any  personal  interest  in  the 
matter.  The  wants  of  these  people  are  purely  animal, — 
food  and  drink  and  a  liberal  share  of  rest.  If  they  have 
any  ideas  above  that,  they  certainly  do  not  express  them  in 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  355 

words.  You  may  have  noticed  that  yourself:  could  vmju 
ever  interest  them  in  your  botanical  collections  ?" 

"  Only  in  the  digestible  varieties :  they  do  not  care  much 
for  scientific  curiosities." 

"  Not  one  straw.  I  had  a  curious  illustration  of  that  a 
year  ago,  when  I  was  out  badger-liunting  with  one  of  our 
peons  one  evening.  Two  miles  southwest  of  the  Nunnery 
there  is  an  artificial  lake  about  a  furlong  across  and  some 
forty  feet  deep,  and  just  when  we  passed  it  we  heard  a  loud 
splash  in  the  pond  right  behind  us,  as  if  somebody  had 
struck  the  water  with  the  broadside  of  a  heavy  oar.  Alli- 
gators are  unknown  in  this  part  of  the  State,  and  no  large 
fish  were  ever  seen  in  that  jjond ;  and  to  this  day  I  have 
not  the  least  idea  what  it  was  or  possibly  could  have  been ; 
but  my  astonishment  was  still  greater  when  I  looked  at  my 
Indian  :  the  brute  had  not  even  turned  his  head,  but  trudged 
on  with  the  unconcern  of  the  most  stupid  quadruped,  for  a 
dog  would  at  least  have  stopped  and  pricked  his  ears." 

"  It's  a  wonder  how  the  ancestors  of  such  animals  could 
build  a  city  like  this." 

"  It  puzzled  me  confoundedly,"  said  the  captain,  "  but  I 
have  now  reasons  to  suspect  that  they  were  no  relations  of 
theirs  at  all.     They  belonged  to  a  different  race." 

"  Toltecs  ?  or  what  is  your  private  theory  ?" 

"I  am  no  scholar,  seilor:  I  can  only  tell  you  how  the 
Indians  themselves  have  led  me  to  my  conclusion.  There 
are  no  large  ruins  in  the  western  suburbs  of  the  '  town,'  as 
our  peons  call  it, — nothing  but  low  walls  and  debris  of  rough- 
hewn  stones, — and  we  ascertained  that  among  the  old  In- 
dians of  the  neighboring  settlements  this  part  of  Uxmal 
goes  by  the  name  of  the  At'acegual,  the  '  Indian  Town,' 
but  the  eastern  portion  they  call  the  '  Main  City' — El 
Huasacmal, — and  that's  whence  the  word  Uxmal  is  derived. 


356  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Who  inhabited  that  '  main  city'  is  more  than  I  can  tell,  for 
it  seems  that  the  ancestors  of  our  Indios  had  to  live  in  a 
pariah  suburb.  M'acegual  is  the  native  word  for  a  Mayo 
Indian.  Up  in  the  Sierra  de  Macoba,  where  white  men 
have  hardly  ever  been  seen,  there  is  a  plateau  they  call  the 
Campo  de  Rota,  the  '  Field  of  Defeat ;'  and  in  districts 
where  our  priests  do  not  watch  them  they  celebrate  a  festi- 
val about  the  end  of  September  under  the  name  of  the 
*  Week  of  Deliverance.'  So  far  as  I  know,  they  cannot 
pretend  to  have  been  delivered  from  us  or  the  Spaniards  in 
that  week.  And  as  you  came  up  the  river  from  Don  Cor- 
tina's  place  you  may  have  noticed  the  large  quarry  on  the 
right-hand  side  of  the  cailon.  That  quarry  goes  by  a  name 
which  our  peons  tell  us  means  la  Matanza,  the '  man-killery/ 
as  if  they  had  been  worked  near  to  death  there,  cutting 
stone, — probably  for  the  same  foreign  gentlemen  who  in- 
habited the  '  main  city.'  " 

"  Don't  you  think  your  excavations  will  bring  something 
to  light  that  may  solve  the  puzzle  ?" 

"  I  hardly  think  so.  The  holes  and  cellars  have  been 
rummaged  pretty  thoroughly.  We  found  a  large  skeleton 
two  years  ago,  and  some  English  gentlemen  told  us  it  might 
help  to  settle  the  race-question ;  but  it  has  been  in  Sisal 
these  last  ten  months,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  they  can 
make  anything  of  it,  except  that  the  bones  seem  larger  than 
those  of  any  living  Yucateco.  There  has  been  a  good  deal 
of  private  digging  going  on  here,  our  neighbors  tell  me,  but 
most  of  the  explorers  were  treasure-hunters,  and  that  busi- 
ness has  declined  for  want  of  encouragement.  One  poor 
devil  thought  his  fortune  was  made  when  he  found  a  big 
earthenware  box  in  the  cellar  of  the  Palomal,  but  when  he 
got  it  open  it  proved  to  be  full  of  skulls  and  knuckle-bones, 
mixed  with  sand  and  a  sort  of  yellow  brickdust.     Our 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII. 


357 


Indians  speak  of  a  time  wl^en  their  forefathers  used  to  dig 
up  iron  swords  and  spear-heads  from  the  debris,  and  have  a 
dim  tradition  tliat  once — long  before  the  Spaniards  came 


A    DISAPPOINTED    TREASURK-HUNTER. 


— a  body  of  armed  men  landed  at  Cape  Pcnasco,  twenty 
miles  south  of  Campeche,  marched  to  Uxmal  by  following 
the  ridge  of  the  mountains,  and  removed  a  great  mass  of 

23 


358 


SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


plunder  from  one  of  the  buildings  where  it  had  lain  con- 
cealed under  the  stone  slabs  of  the  floor." 

"  If  you  understand  their  language  or  have  a  Spanish- 
speaking  peon,  you  ought  to  collect  such  traditions." 

"  I  do,  but  few  of  them  are  worth  repeating.  There  is 
no  lack  of  legends,  of  course :  for  instance,  the  tradition 
of  the  Indian  hunter  who  crossed  the  Rio  Macoba  before 
sunrise  one  morning,  and  heard  a  sound  of  merry  music 
when  he  approached  the  Casa  de  las  Monjas,  and,  crouching 
behind  a  tree,  saw  a  number  of  young  men  step  from  the 
ruins  before  long  and  pass  within  a  few  yards  of  his  tree 
with  garlands  on  their  necks  and  guitar-like  instruments  in 
their  hands,  as  if  they  were  returning  from  a  nocturnal 
fandango;  but  the  starlight  was  too  dim  to  see  where  they 
went  to.  Indian  ghosts  are  more  sensitive  than  ours :  they 
cannot  stand  moonlight  any  more  than  sunshine.  Have 
you.  ever  heard  of  the  rebosada  f 

"  Some  female  spook,  I  suppose  ?" 

"  Yes,  it  means  the  veiled  woman,  the  lady  with  the  hood, 
— a  sort  of  female  Bluebeard  who  entices  unwary  young 
men  to  out-of-the-way  places  and  massacres  them  after  a 
very  short  flirtation.  In  the  Cerro  de  Sacrificios,  twelve 
miles  east  from  here,  the  Indians  say  that  one  of  her  in- 
tended victims  was  saved  by  the  timely  rising  of  the  moon. 
He  recognized  her  by  her  gleaming  teeth,  but  instead  of 
betraying  any  fear  he  flattered  her  in  the  most  amiable  way, 
and  told  her  so  many  diverting  stories  that  she  missed  her 
chronological  calculations.  They  were  walking  up  hill  arm 
in  arm,  due  west  by  good  fortune,  he  stealing  an  occa- 
sional look  at  the  sky,  while  he  managed  to  keep  her  from 
turning  her  head  till  they  reached  the  summit,  when 
he  suddenly  stopped  and  pointed  to  the  east.  'Look, 
mi  araante,'  said  he,  '  who  comes  there  with  a  white  caji !' 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  359 

She  turned,  saw  the  rising  moon,  and  vanished  witli  a 
horrible  shriek." 

The  captain  rose  and  walked  toward  the  window.  "  That 
reminds  me  I  ought  to  vanish  myself,"  said  he  :  "  the  moon 
is  up,  and  I  guess  I  can  find  my  way  home  without  a  lan- 
tern. The  sky  is  quite  clear :  it's  going  to  be  cold  to- 
night." 

"  Yes,"  said  the  mozo,  "  we  had  better  keep  our  fire 
going.  Wait:  I'm  going  to  fetch  that  big  log  we  left  in 
the  basement  where  we  cooked  our  dinner." 

"  It's  your  own  fault,  captain,"  laughed  the  Pecador : 
"  that  ghost-story  of  yours  will  cost  you  a  pretty  lot  of 
firewood,  don't  you  see?  Our  poor  Indian  wants  an  ex- 
cuse for  keeping  up  a  light  all  night,  so  your  spooks  can't 
get  the  better  of  him." 

We  were  not  the  first  travellers  who  had  camped  in  this 
palace  of  unknown  kings,  or  whose  witch-expelling  smoke 
had  ascended  through  the  chimney :  in  the  alcove  of  an 
adjoining  room  we  found  a  large  heap  of  wood-ashes  and 
broken  bottles  the  next  morning,  and  between  the  hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions  the  stone  tablets  on  the  south  wall  of 
the  Quartel  bore  the  less  interesting  but  more  legible  signa- 
tures of  the  Messrs.  Smith,  Bi'own,  and  Schultze.  Around 
some  of  the  tablets  the  cement  seemed  to  have  been  chopped 
oflP  with  a  hatchet,  but  if  some  inquisitive  barbarian  had 
tried  to  remove  them  his  attempt  had  been  foiled  by  their 
thickness  and  the  resistance  of  the  surrounding  masonry. 
On  the  east  side  the  third  story  of  the  building  has  been 
made  accessible  by  means  of  iron  spikes  driven  into  the 
wall  at  handy  intervals,  and  in  a  corner  of  the  basement 
we  found  the  remains  of  a  rude  scaffold  which  a  visitor 
from  Sisal  had  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  photographing 
the  inscription  over  the  front  portal.     Some  Engh'sh  ofii- 


360 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


cers  who  had  rusticated  here  for  a  couple  of  weeks  went  to 
the  trouble  of  copying  the  entire  fa9ade  of  the  Casa  de  las 
Monjas,  a  sculptured  chronicle  of  many  chapters;  but  I 
contented  myself  with  making  a  drawing  of  the  best  pre- 
served side  of  the  above-men- 
tioned limestone  obelisk,  which 
is  almost  covered  with  emblems 
and  iconographs. 

Tlie  Indians  stick  to  the 
belief  that  the  inscriptions  will 
ultimately  be  deciphered  and 
reveal  the  hiding-place  of  the 
tesoro  del  regote — the  treasure 
of  the  Great  King — that  lies 
buried  somewhere  in  a  stone 
chest,  and  may  perhaps  ])e  res- 
urrected by  a  learned  Indian, 
a  mail-carrier,  or  a  parish  clerk, 
though  they  have  a  sore  mis- 
giving that  the  erudite  for- 
eigners will  be  beforehand  with 
them. 

But  it  is  extremely  prob- 
able that  neither  red-skin  nor 
pale-face  will  ever  disturb  the 
royal  treasury,  for  the  ablest 
American  archaeologists  and 
philologists  have  resigned 
themselves  to  the  conviction 
that  the  hieroglyphics  of  Uxmal  will  remain  what  they  are 
now, — a  book  with  seven  seals.  Even  if  another  Champol- 
lion  should  discover  a  key  to  the  alphabet,Jie  would  be  con- 
fronted by  a  further  and  more  insuperable  difficulty,  for,  like 


Ol'.KLiSK    OF    UXMAL. 


THE  AMERICAN  POMPEII.  361 

the  parrot  of  the  Orinoco  mentioned  in  Humboldt's  travels, 
these  inscriptions  speak  the  language  of  an  extipct  tribe, — 
a  language  that  has  outlived  its  interpreters.  The  buildings 
themselves,  indeed,  are  symbols  of  a  more  manifest  signifi- 
cance, and  proclaim  in  a  language  which  cannot  be  misunder- 
stood that  Eastern  Mexico  was  not  always  a  land  of  wild 
woods  and  thatched  wigwams ;  but  of  the  builders  not  even 
the  nominis  umbra  is  left.  Like  the  rock-skeletons  of  an 
earlier  world,  the  walls  of  their  houses  have  remained,  but 
all  that  is  perishable  about  the  works  and  the  memory  of  a 
nation — their  name,  their  fame,  their  language  and  every 
trace  of  their  influence — has  been  obliterated  forever.  The 
havoc  of  war  and  the  blight  which  the  decay  of  a 
large  city  entails  on  the  surrounding  country  have  left  no 
vestige  in  the  neighborhood  of  their  ruins ;  a  forest-vegeta- 
tion which  seems  to  date  its  origin  from  the  dawn  of  creation 
covers  their  battle-grounds,  their  higiiways,  and  their  for- 
saken fields:  the  malady  of  civilization  has  been  thoroughly 
cured.  The  ghosts,  too,  have  been  laid,  the  avenging  spirits 
that  haunt  the  burial-places  of  murdered  Eastern  nations : 
there  are  no  robbers  in  Yucatan;  the  harmless  natives  seem 
to  belong  to  one  of  those  elder  races  which,  like  the  au- 
tochthones of  Egypt  and  India,  have  bent  before  successive 
storms  of  conquest  and  survived  them  all.  Their  assailants 
have  fulfilled  their  doom  in  mutual  destruction,  and  the 
abandoned  ruins  have  been  reconciled  with  Nature,  in 
whose  hands  a  tomb  becomes  a  temple  of  peace. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   BACKWOODS   OF   GUATEMALA. 

Days  that  passed  by  like  hours,  but  whose  remembrance 
Will  pall  our  city  joys  for  many  years. 

Clemens  Brextano  :  Aljjen-Reise. 

Hart  de  chasse-eniiui, — the  "art  of  pastime," — I  take 
it,  has  been  more  liberally  patronized,  and  consequently 
more  assiduously  cultivated,  than  any  other,  but  the  costly 
amusements  of  our  gayest  cities  can  never  emulate  the  gra- 
tuitous diversions  which  Nature  provides  for  her  favored 
guests.  "  I  was  brought  up  in  the  fashionable  quarters  of 
a  large  capital,"  says  Victor  Jacquemont,  "  but  from  early 
boyhood  I  could  not  get  rid  of  the  impression  that  the  life 
men  were  intended  for  must  have  been  diiferent  from  ours, 
— less  dull  especially.  Before  I  left  Europe  I  could  not 
account  for  this  idea,  but  among  the  tropical  wonders  of 
the  Nerbudda  I  felt  that  I  had  been  right." 

I  became  conscious  of  a  similar  feeling  on  the  hunting- 
grounds  of  the  lower  Rio  Grande,  and  again,  seven  years 
later,  when  I  crossed  the  primeval  forests  of  Eastern  Gua- 
temala in  midwinter,  which  here  corresponds  to  the  spring- 
time of  our  Northern  woodlands.  Eastern  Guatemala  is 
the  American  Siam,  a  zoological  park,  the  botanic  garden- 
spot  of  our  tropicSj^a  land  whose  marine  climate  and  rich 
black  soil  can  vie  with  the  happiest  regions  of  the  Sunda 
Archipelago.  Especially  the  alturas  or  mountain-forests 
362 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  363 

of  the  department  of  Vera  Paz,  l)etween  Yucatan  and  tlie 
main  chain  of  tlie  Sierra  Negra,  cannot  have  been  more 
hixuriant  when  Avila  and  Pedrarias  landed  in  the  Bay  of 
Belize.  Southern  Mexico  may  rival  this  region  in  the 
marvels  of  its  primeval  vegetation,  but  no  land  on  earth 
in  the  number  and  variety  of  its  birds  and  flying  insects. 
The  hill-country  of  Vera  Paz  is  Nature's  museum  of  living 
birds  and  butterflies,  as  the  upper  valley  of  the  Zambesi  is 
the  great  preserve  of  the  four-footed  ferce  naturce. 

In  the  last  year  of  my  sojourn  in  Spanish  America  I 
visited  the  alturas  as  the  commissioner  of  certain  Belgian 
colonists  who  intended  the  settlement  of  a  public  domain 
in  the  Sierra  Negra  de  Vera  Paz.  At  the  urgent  recom- 
mendation of  the  French  consul  in  Guatemala  I  had  in- 
duced them  to  engage  the  services  of  a  veteran  frontiersman, 
the  ex-mayoral  or  mining-superintendent,  Don  Nicolas 
Ruan,  who  had  been  obliged  to  resign  in  expiation  of  his 
inpatriotismo  ("  unpatriotism"),  like  many  others,  who, 
with  or  without  an  active  interest  in  politics,  had  been  guilty 
of  the  indiscretion  of  holding  office  under  ^Maximilian.  A 
likewise  rather  unnational  foible  for  scientific  experiments 
and  books  had  prevented  him  from  hoarding  the  wages  of 
his  sin,  and  for  the  last  eight  years  he  had  eked  out  a  frugal 
living  on  a  little  banana-farm  in  the  frontier  State  of  Chia- 
pas, whence  he  had  frequently  visited  the  mining-districts 
of  Northern  Guatemala  on  the  chance  of  earning  a  few 
dollars  as  a  surveyor  or  mineralogist.  His  topographical 
memory  might  have  saved  me  the  expense  of  an  Indian 
guide,  and,  in  spite  of  his  advanced  years,  he  proved  a  stout 
pedestrian  and  most  entertaining  travelling-companion.  In 
the  village  of  San  llemo,  where  the  Chiapas  camino  real 
terminates  at  a  rope-ferry,  Don  Nicolas  met  me  with  a  large 
boar-hound  and  a  mestizo  peon  who  had  shared  his  fortune 


364  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

in  all  its  vicissitudes,  and  on  the  following  morning  we 
crossed  the  frontier  near  the  cascades  of  the  Rio  Dolores 
and  entered  the  virgin  woods  of  Vera  Paz.  Guatemala 
has  no  tierra  caliente  proper,  no  lowland  jungles,  for  on 
both  shores  the  cliiFs  of  the  plateau  reach  to  the  very  edge 
of  the  sea,  and  the  airy  hill-forests  contrast  agreeably 
with  the  stagnating  swamps  of  Eastern  Yucatan;  still,  the 
exuberance  of  the  veo;etation  is  fairlv  astoundino; :  the 
varieties  of  palm-trees  alone  are  considerably  more  nu- 
merous than  all  the  arboreal  species  of  the  New  England 
woods  taken  together.  It  often  made  me  laugh  to  imagine 
the  bewilderment  of  an  omniscient  Northern  botanist  in 
these  tangle-woods ;  and,  begging  Professor  Linne's  pardon, 
I  hold  that  the  still  prevailing  system  of  botanic  classifica- 
tion by  staminal  distinctions  would  be  admirably  calculated 
to  increase  this  confusion.  The  plan  of  classing  quadrupeds 
after  the  shape  of  their  tails,  though  it  would  group  cows 
with  lions  and  horses  with  ant-bears,  could  hardly  lead  to 
more  perj)lexing  results.  A  member  of  the  just-mentioned 
great  family  of  palms,  for  instance,  can  always  be  identified 
by  unmistakable  outward  characteristics,  but  the  division 
by  stamens  and  peculiarities  of  inflorescence  would  dis- 
member and  scatter  the  same  family  among  the  grasses, 
brassicas,  coniferse,  and  sixteen  or  twenty  other  species  that 
differ  as  widely  as  a  pine-tree  does  from  a  cabbage. 

Our  trail  followed  the  windings  of  the  Rio  Corso,  a  small 
affluent  of  the  Dolores,  and  as  long  as  we  kept  the  creek 
in  sight  the  canopy  of  leaves  overhead  was  almost  unbroken, 
— a  continuous  screen  of  tangled  lianas,  through  which  the 
sunlight  came  mellowed  as  through  a  roof  of  opaque  green 
glass.  But  after  two  hours  of  climbing  up  and  down  over 
fallen  trees  and  through  rocky  ravines  and  fern-thickets, 
the  valley  contracted  into  a  glen,  and  we  had  to  breast  a 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  365 

hillside  whose  slippery  slate-cliifs  would  have  tripped  even 
the  goat-footed  Sierra  Madre  mules.  Seeing  that  the  woods 
o|)ened  as  we  ascended,  we  made  our  way  to  the  very  toj) 
of  the  ridge,  and  obtained  a  ftiir  view  of  the  surrounding 
country  on  three  sides,  the  lookout  in  the  west  being  barred 
by  the  wooded  knolls  of  the  ridge,  a  spur  of  the  slate- 
mountains  that  flank  the  upper  valley  of  the  Rio  Dolores. 

The  ravines  at  our  feet  were  hidden  by  the  foliage  of 
their  giant  trees,  and  from  our  height  we  beheld  the  obverse 
of  the  screen,  the  upper  and  sunny  side  of  the  leafy  vault 
that  overshadows  the  valleys  of  Vera  Paz  far  and  near. 
It  was  in  midwinter,  the  flower-time  of  the  lower  tropics, 
three  months  after  the  end  of  the  rainy  season,  and  in  the 
sun-gilt  foliage  the  various  tints  of  green  were  mingled 
with  an  equal  number  of  diiferent  flower-hues,  Mhite  and 
light  blue  predominating,  with  other  colors  scattered  here 
and  there  like  butterflies  on  a  meadow  of  snowdrops  and 
violets.  In  the  southwest  the  ocean  of  golden  green  was 
bounded  by  the  heights  of  the  Sierra  de  San  Luiz, — a  blue 
range  with  that  hazy  outline  peculiar  to  wood-covered 
mountains, — while  the  hill-country  in  the  east  sloped  toward 
the  Val  de  Madera  (the  "  timber-valley"),  a  deep  woody 
glen  expanding  in  the  northeast,  where  the  Lake  of  Peten 
glittered  between  the  tree-tops  of  its  forty  islands.*  A 
greater  elevation  would  have  revealed  a  glimpse  of  the  Bay 
of  Honduras  between  the  lieadlands  of  the  eastern  coast- 
range,  but  we  saw  only  an  unbroken  contour  of  wooded 
hills.  The  department  of  Vera  Paz  is  tlie  backwoods 
State  of  Guatemala,  neglected,  or  rather  spared,  by  the 


*  Lake  Peten  {el  lago  de  quarenta  islas)  is  about  sixty  miles  in  cir- 
cumference. On  the  largest  of  its  islands  stand-s  the  old  convent-town 
of  Flores,  now  abandoned  to  the  Mission  Indians. 


366  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Spanish  colonists,  who  mostly  confined  their  settlements  to 
the  gold-bearing  valleys  of  the  western  sierras. 

Birds  of  all  kinds  chased  each  other  through  the  tree-tops 
or  darted  across  the  ravines,  but  in  regard  to  the  fauna  of  a 
tropical  woodland  the  ear  is  a  better  criterion  than  the  eye. 
In  the  littoral  pineries  of  North  Carolina  I  have  often 
wondered  at  the  utter  stillness  of  their  gloomy  depths,  Avhich 
for  half-hours  together  remained  unbroken  by  any  sound 
save  the  rustling  of  a  squirrel  or  the  occasional  moan  of  a 
ringdove.  In  Florida  and  Southern  Texas  the  pauses  of 
the  diurnal  bird-concerts  rarely  exceed  five  minutes,  in 
Eastern  Mexico  hardly  twenty  seconds,  and  south  of  the 
fifteenth  parallel  their  music  may  vary  from  a  ringing  dia- 
pason to  a  chirping  monotone,  but  is  never  entirely  inter- 
rupted while  the  sun  remains  above  the  norizou.  On  the 
Rio  Corso  the  multitudinous  twitter  of  small  songsters 
formed  a  sort  of  accompaniment  to  the  shrill  melodies  of 
the  weaver-thrush  and  the  fitful  counter  bass  of  a  croaking 
iguana,  while  the  antiphones  of  screaming  parrots  and 
shrieking  sapajous  came  at  various  intervals  from  different 
distances,  and  often  suddenly  from  trees  where  not  the  stir- 
ring of  a  leaf  had  betrayed  the  presence  of  any  living  thing. 
Here  I  heard  for  the  first  time  the  plaintive  cry  of  the 
spider-monkeys,  a  pitiful  howl  with  singular  flute-like 
variations. 

"  I  have  sometimes  heard  them  in  Chiapas"  (Southern 
Mexico),  remarked  the  mayoral,  "  but  only  from  a  far  dis- 
tance :  they  are  absurdly  shy,  and  fly  at  the  sight  of  the 
smallest  Indian  boy  as  if  they  had  seen  a  panther." 

"  You  may  have  studied  the  habits  of  other  monkeys," 
said  I :  "  what  woods  or  trees  are  their  favorite  haunts  ?" 

"  They  prefer  the  sunny  side  of  the  foot-hills,"  said  the 
mayoral,  "  but  there  is  no  such  thing  as  counting  upon  their 


1 


THE   BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  367 

appearance  at  any  certain  place  or  time,  as  yon  wonld  stalk 
deer  at  a  saltlick  or  hogs  in  a  canebrake.  Monkeys  build 
no  nests,  and  they  are  migratory  :  they  may  suddenly  ai)pear 
in  swarms  in  districts  where  they  iiav^e  not  been  seen  for 
years,  and  there  is  no  kind  of  food  that  can  be  relied  upon 
to  attract  them  to  any  particular  place,  with  the  exce])tion 
perhaps  of  fig-tamarinds  and  ripe  mulberries  at  a  time 
when  other  fruit  is  scarce.  It  would  l)e  easier  to  say  with 
assurance  where  you  cannot  find  them  :  they  wander  to  and 
fro  between  the  settled  mountain-valleys  and  the  coast- 
jungles,  trying  to  give  hunters  and  panthers  an  equally 
wide  berth." 

On  the  western  slope  of  the  ridge  we  lost  our  trail  among 
the  slate-cliflfs,  but  the  ground  was  tolerably  free  from  un- 
derbrush, and  before  sundown  we  reached  the  shore  of  the 
Rio  Moscon,  a  tributary  of  the  Lago  de  Peten,  and  our 
valley-road  to  the  plateau  of  the  Sierra  Negra.  We  halted 
under  a  clump  of  magnolia-trees,  for  a  dancing  swarm  of 
twilight  gnats  admonished  us  to  get  our  hammocks  ready, 
as  we  could  not  have  reached  any  building  before  midnight 
nor  leave  the  river  bottom  without  going  out  of  our  way. 
A  stout  canameTio  (or  travelling  hammock)  of  Sisal  hemp 
weighs  about  five  pounds,  and  with  an  air-pillow  or  folded 
shawl  and  a  woollen  blanket  makes  a  bed  that  secures  you 
against  the  dampness  of  the  ground,  and,  if  you  will  take 
the  trouble  to  hang  it  high  enough,  against  all  the  gnats  of 
the  tierras  calientes.  Magnolia-,  mango-,  and  walnut-trees 
make  the  best  roosts,  being  tough  and  free  from  thorns ; 
and  after  the  traveller  has  overcome  the  nervousness  which 
will  probably  interrupt  his  slumbers  for  the  first  few  nights, 
the  only  objection  to  the  use  of  a  canameflo  is  the  trouble 
of  finding  trees  which  are  at  once  high  enough  and  not  too 
difficult  of  ascent.      An   elevation   of  twenty  feet  in   the 


568 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


EXCELSIOR 


alturas  and  of 
thirty  in  the 
lowlands  is  the 
miiiimuin,  but 
even  in  the 
reeking  swamps  of  the  coast-jungles  a  roost-height  of  fifty- 
feet  constitutes  an  absolute  excelsior  to  all  the  insect-plagues 
of  the  lower  world. 

After  dividing  the  blankets  between  our  two  aerial  cra- 
dles, the  mayoral  descended  for  his  gun  and  travelling-bag. 


I 


THE  BACKWOODS  OF   GUATEMALA.  369 

"  Quiere  subirf  Hadn't  you  better  join  us  up  there?"  he 
asked  my  guide,  who  was  but  ill  provided  with  bedding  of 
any  kind. 

The  Indio  grinned  and  shook  his  head.  "  I'm  a  bad 
hand  at  climbing,"  he  said,  "  and  would  rather  trust  to  my 
feet  si  seria  novedacV  (if  anything  should  happen). 

He  had  set  his  heart  on  reaching  an  Indian  village  that 
night,  and  did  by  no  means  approve  of  our  camp  in  the 
river-jungle.  The  night,  however,  was  passed  without 
novedad,  except  that  I  lost  a  package  of  topographical 
charts  from  under  my  pillow  in  a  way  which  I  have  never 
been  able  to  account  for.  The  mayoral  being  above  suspi- 
cion, and  the  Indians  below,  I  had  to  devote  my  impreca- 
tions to  a  swarm  of  hypothetical  tree-rats,  of  whose  squeaking 
in  the  branches  my  guide  had  heard  or  dreamed  something 
between  midnight  and  morning. 

When  we  resumed  our  march  the  ground  was  covered 
with  a  "  grass-fog"  [nube  yerbal),  as  my  companion  called 
it, — a  dense  white  mist  that  shrouded  the  undergrowth  up 
to  a  height  of  two  or  three  feet,  while  the  upper  air  was 
clear  enough  to  reflect  the  sunbeams  from  the  dew-drenched 
foliage  overhead.  At  a  distance  of  ten  paces  our  guide 
seemed  to  wade  up  to  his  knees  in  a  lake  of  milk-white 
matter,  and  a  squirrel  which  leaped  to  the  ground  at  our 
approach  disappeared  at  once,  like  a  frog  in  a  turbid  creek. 
We  stopped  for  breakfast  at  the  beach  of  the  Rio  Moscoii, 
not  far  from  the  mouth  of  a  creek  where  the  ripple  of  the 
current  and  a  bridle-path  winding  up  the  steep  bank  indi- 
cated a  ford. 

"  That's  the  San  Tomas  trail,"  said  the  mayoral,  "  the 
interoceanic  road  from  San  Tomas  to  Michatoya  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  Do  you  see  that  gap  in  the  spur  of  the  ridge 
over  there?     If  ever  Guatemalans  become  a  commercial 


370  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

people,  this  same  trail  will  be  the  route  of  a  transconti- 
nental railroad  :  the  saddle  of  the  gap  where  it  crosses  the 
Sierra  Negra  is  only  twelve  hundred  feet  above  tide-water, 
and  almost  in  a  bee-line  between  the  Bay  of  Honduras  and 
their  best  Pacific  port." 

The  gap,  in  a  ridge  of  faint  blue  hills  in  the  western 
sky,  seemed  about  on  a  level  with  the  horizon,  but  toward 
the  south  the  mountains  rose  in  all  the  majesty  of  the 
Sierra  Madre,  and  among  the  bold  summits  of  the  central 
chain  we  recognized  the  twin-peak  of  Amilpas,  whose  west- 
ern horn  is  the  highest  active  volcano  (thirteen  thousand 
eight  hundred  feet)  between  Ecuador  and  the  valley  of 
Anahuac. 

In  proportion  to  his  strength,  a  dog  is  a  far  more  cour- 
ageous animal  than  his  master,  at  whose  bidding  he  will 
charge  a  bull  or  a  bear  regardless  of  consequences,  yet  even 
the  bravest  dog  is  apt  to  recognize  the  resistless  superiority 
of  certain  enemies.  When  we  passed  a  cane-jungle  at  the 
mouth  of  the  creek,  Don  Ruan's  big  boar-hound  Leoncito 
came  rushing  out  of  the  bushes,  ventre  a  terre,  with  his  tail 
drawn  in,  and,  after  retreating  behind  his  master,  looked 
back  at  the  jungle  with  a  sort  of  shudder  bristling  his 
shaggy  coat. 

"  What  was  it  ?  a  panther  ?" 

"  No,  no,"  laughed  the  senor :  "  you  wouldn't  see  this 
old  boy  making  room  for  a  panther,  or  a  jaguar  either,  in 
that  respectful  way.  He  has  seen  a  snake,  a  vivora  parda" 
(species  of  moccasin),  "  I  suppose.  You  would  hear  him 
all  over  a  square  league  of  ground  if  he  had  met  a  panther, 
but  to  a  snake  he  knocks  under  without  any  '  back  talk,' 
as  a  man  would  to  a  ghost  or  a  bombshell." 

Beyond  the  creek  our  trail  improved  to  a  broad  beaten 
path,  and  toward  noon  we  reached  a  village  of  the  Casca 


THE  BACKWOODS  0I<    GUATEMALA. 


371 


Indians  on  a 
high  bkiff  above 
the  Rio  Moscon, 
which  here  en- 
closed different 
islands,  on  whose 
flat  shores  a  num- 
ber of  pits  and 
little  sand- piles 
attested  the  re- 
cent visit  of  a 
turtle-egg  hunter.  There  were  about  sixteen  lodges,  but 
ten  squaws  or  five  stout  men  could  have  removed  the  entire 
camp  in  half  an  hour.  The  huts  were  mere  tiendas,  open 
tents  of  bombax  matting,  and  one  framework  lodge  of 
poles,  with  a  roof  of  concentric  wattles  partly  covered  with 
flat  bundles  of  swamp-grass  and  bulrushes.  There  is  some- 
thing in  the  expression  of  the  lower  facial  features — the 


VILLAGE  OF  THE  CASCA  INDIANS. 


372  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

mouth,  the  maxillary  bones,  and  the  chin — which  at  first 
sight  distinguishes  the  carnivorous  Indio  from  his  vege- 
tarian cousin ;  and  the  face  of  a  young  squaw  in  the  first 
tent  told  me  at  once  that  the  Casca  Indians  belong  to  the 
hunting-tribes  of  Eastern  Guatemala,  the  hunting  and 
fishing  forest-nomads,  who  may  pick  a  few  berries  from 
the  wild-currant  bushes  or  a  windfall  from  under  the  nut- 
bearing  trees,  but  prefer  the  uncertain  prizes  of  the  chase 
to  the  abundant  rewards  of  agriculture, — in  the  tropics,  at 
least,  a  hardly  natural  bias,  and  somewhat  akin,  methinks, 
to  the  moral  perversity  of  gamblers  and  tramps.  They 
had  not  removed  the  rubbish  from  behind  their  tiendas, 
and  disdained  to  drain  a  large  puddle  in  the  centre  of 
what  might  be  called  their  market-square,  though  a  short 
ditch  would  have  discharged  the  water  over  the  bluff,  and 
though  an  old  pitfall  in  rear  of  the  camp  proved  that  they 
were  not  unprovided  with  ditching  implements.  From 
the  ridge-pole  of  the  main  lodge  depended  the  remains  of 
a  peccari  and  a  string  of  wild  pigeons, — shot  with  bamboo 
arrows  and  bows  of  bignonia-wood,  the  mayoral  assured 
me ;  and  the  patriarch  of  the  village  was  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  hunting-snares  from  the  fibrous  bast  of  an 
unknown  plant,  the  strings  being  greenish-yellow  and  ap- 
parently tough  enough  to  hold  a  peccari.  A  live  harpy- 
eagle  in  a  kind  of  hen-coop  near  the  tent  had  one  of  his 
talons  quite  entangled  with  strings  of  that  sort,  which 
must  have  resisted  the  edge  of  his  powerful  beak.  I  took 
up  a  piece  of  the  green  bast  and  tried  to  tear  it  between 
my  fingers.  "  No  wonder  the  poor  devil  could  not  break 
it,"  said  I. 

Pointing  to  the  eagle,  the  old  man  crooked  his  five 
fingers  into  the  shape  of  a  claw,  and  drawing  them  across 
and  lengthways  over  the  wrist  of  his  other  hand,  gave  me 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA. 


373 


to  understand  that  the  kinij:  of  Central  American  birds  had 
not  been  captured  with  impunity. 

In  spite  of  their  prognathous  profiles,  the  Casca  Indians 
cannot  boast  of  the  grim  misanthropic  visages  of  our  North- 


IN    TUK    TOILS. 


ern  red-skins,  and 
have  the  reputation 
of  treating  their 
squaws  with  a  good 
deal  of  indulgence. 
Their  pappooses  too,  in  their  intercourse  with  their  male 
seniors,  behaved  like  privileged  personages,  and  took  111)- 
erties  which  a  Sioux  warrior  would  have  resented  with  an 
impressive  kick.     One  toddling  little  muchacho  Ibllowt-d 

24 


374  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

me  all  over  the  camp,  and  watched  my  face  with  an 
expression  of  mingled  curiosity  and  amusement  when 
I  bent  over  the  cage  of  the  harpy.  In  a  remark  about 
the  difficulty  of  keeping  such  pets  alive  I  used  the 
word  alimento  (food),  and  the  modulation  of  the  four 
syllables  so  tickled  the  fancy  of  my  little  companion  that 
he  repeated  them  again  and  again,  accompanying  each 
successful  attempt  with  a  burst  of  merry  laughter.  But 
when  we  continued  our  march  the  same  infant  clung  to 
my  shawl  with  a  question  which  our  guide  interpreted  as 
an  inquiry  after  the  amount  of  my  loose  coppers, — a  request 
for  backsheesh,  in  fact ! 

"  How  old  would  you  take  that  little  monkey  to  be  ?" 
I  asked,  after  a  moderate  disbursement — "  three  or  four 
years  ?" 

"■  Hardly  three,"  said  the  mayoral :  "  wonderfully  pre- 
cocious kids,  are  they  not?  They  are  up  to  a  lot  of  snuff 
before  a  white  man's  child  can  walk  on  its  hind  legs.  A 
couple  of  years  ago  I  was  out  hunting  a  few  leagues  west 
of  my  place,  and  came  across  a  stray  pappoose, — just  four 
years  old,  as  I  afterward  found  to  a  certainty.  When  she 
spied  me  first  she  started  to  run,  but  stopped  when  she  saw 
that  I  should  overtake  her  anyhow.  '  Oh,  mi  senor,'  she 
snivelled,  '  do  you  like  fried  plantains  or  yams  with  bacon 
fat  and  chipped  onions  ?'  '  Don't  I,  now !'  I  said,  won- 
dering what  she  would  be  at.  '  Pues  tendra  usted  muchos' 
(then  you  will  get  lots  of  them),  she  said,  '  if  you  will 
please  take  me  to  my  mother's  place.  I  got  off  the  right 
road  :  it's  all  my  brother's  fault ;'  and  then  went  on  to  ex- 
plain how  she  came  to  lose  her  way,  and  that  her  mother 
lived  down  on  the  creek  near  the  Elena  country-road ;  but 
all  after  inquiring  after  my  dietetic  predilections.  A  child 
of  four  years !" 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  375 

Imagine  a  lost  babe  in  the  woods  prefacing  its  tearful 
appeal  with  such  a  question  ! 

"  I  tell  you  what  it  is,"  continued  the  mayoral,  "  I  sus- 
pect that  the  smartness  of  very  young  animals  stands  in 
inverse  ratio  to  their  future  intelligence.  Have  you  ever 
noticed  the  nimbleness  of  young  pigs  and  the  clumsiness 
of  puppies?  The  same  with  children:  with  the  sagacity 
of  the  average  young  Indian  any  white  boy  of  the  same 
age  would  pass  for  a  prodigy ;  but  the  tables  get  turned 
after  twelve  or  fourteen  years,  and  in  comparison  with  a 
long-headed  and  long-bearded  old  Caucasian  the  wisest 
Indian  is  only  a  clever  boy.  The  smaller  the  brain  the 
quicker  its  development.  A  young  hog-tapir  of  ten  months 
is  out  and  out  as  intelligent  as  the  senior  sachem  of  its 
tribe." 

Two  miles  west  of  the  village  we  met  a  squaw  with  a 
large  basketful  of  sweet  acorns,  the  edible  fruit  of  the 
Quercus  ilex,  which  flourishes  in  evergreen  groves  on  both 
sides  of  the  river.  Either  the  mast  or  the  hollow  trunks 
which  characterize  the  old  trees  of  this  species  had  assem- 
bled a  variety  of  parrots  and  macaws,  whose  screams  would 
have  excited  the  envy  of  the  proudest  English  rookery- 
owner.  The  great  purple  macaw,  the  macayo  real  of  Cen- 
tral America,  is  certainly  the  phoenix,  the  polychromatic 
wonder-bird,  of  the  New  World,  hardly  rivalled  by  the 
humming-birds  and  the  gayest  gallinaceous  roosters.  I 
have  never  seen  the  star-spangled  peacock  in  his  native 
jungles,  but  I  saw  him  on  the  wing  in  a  Swiss  poultry- 
park,  flaunting  his  iridescent  plumage  in  a  blaze  of  sun- 
light :  and  still  I  hold  that  Juno's  favorite  would  have 
lost  his  prestige  if  the  goddess  could  have  seen  the  royal 
macaw  sweeping  like  a  meteor  through  the  dark  arcades  of 
a  tropical  forest. 


376  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

By  leaving  the  river  a  mile  or  so  to  the  left  we  passed 
dry-shod  through  a  series  of  lateral  valleys,  each  with  its 
highest  slope  to  the  west,  for  when  we  halted  on  an  open 
plateau  we  saw  the  bluif  far  below,  and  had  now  for  the  first 
time  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  Lago  de  Peten  in  its  full  ex- 
tent. We  had  reached  the  alturas,  or  upland  woods,  in 
the  very  centre  of  Vera  Paz, — thirty  miles,  by  the  mayoral's 
estimate,  from  the  next  largest  settlement.  As  compared 
with  the  lowland  vegetation,  the  varieties  of  palms  had 
diminished,  but  not  the  number  of  fruit-bearing  trees :  the 
air  was  saturated  with  the  honey-smell  of  ripe  and  rotting 
chirimoyas,  a  species  of  wild  plums,  and  the  carob-beans 
("St.  John's  food"),  tamarinds,  and  mimosas  displayed 
bunches  of  green  pods  that  must  have  flowered  before  the 
end  of  the  rainy  season. 

"Wasn't  I  right?"  said  the  mayoral.  "I  told  you 
yesterday  that  monkeys  make  their  head-quarters  on  the 
sunny  side  of  the  foot-hills.  They  are  at  their  old  game 
again :  those  tamarinds  are  just  swarming  with  sapajous : 
hear  them  ! — Hallo  !"  said  he,  "  look  there !  Old  Lucas" 
(the  peon)  "  has  hoisted  his  blue  peter.  I  guess  he  is  after 
a  wild-cat :  he  promised  his  squaw  to  get  her  a  catskin  or 
two." 

The  taciturn  old  peon  had  hung  back  since  we  entered 
the  high  timber,  still-hunting,  as  it  seemed ;  but,  looking 
back,  we  saw  him  dash  through  the  thicket  at  a  lively  rate, 
stop  short  and  clap  his  old  trabucco  to  his  cheek,  aiming 
almost  straight  overhead.  A  short  snap,  but  no  smoke, — 
the  crazy  flintlock  had  not  even  ignited  the  pan-powder, — 
and  the  Indian  grabbed  his  gun  as  if  he  had  a  good  mind 
to  break  it  against  the  next  tree. 

"  What  is  it  ?"  the  mayoral  sang  out :  "  a  cat  ?" 

"  No  !—fratres  delgados"   ("  Brothers   Long-legs" — i.e., 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  377 

spider-monkeys),  shouted  the  peon — "  about  seven  of  them ! 
El  Demonio  take  this  seven-times-accursed  old  shooting- 
iron  of  mine !" 

We  started  at  a  double-quick,  cocking  our  guns  a.s  we 
ran,  but  too  late:  the  long-legged  brethren  had  justified 
their  nickname  and  reached  the  tree-tops  on  the  other  side 
of  a  broad  ravine,  going  through  the  liana-tangle  at  a  rate 
of  a  furlong  per  minute,  hand  over  hand,  with  a  swing  of 
five  yards  at  each  grab.  The  English  language  has  no 
single  word  for  superlative  nitnbleness,  but  the  spider- 
monkey  [Lagothrix  paniscus)  is  nimble  to  a  degree  which 
makes  one  smile  at  the  readiness  with  which  that  word  is 
applied  to  such  creatures  as  rats  and  raccoons.  If  a  s])ider- 
mon key  could  be  trained  like  an  East  Indian  hunting-pan- 
ther, I  believe  that  his  owner  could  safely  back  him  to 
catch  twenty  squirrels  in  as  many  minutes. 

"  Don't  waste  your  powder,"  said  the  mayoral :  "  better 
try  the  monos''  (sapajous)  "  if  you  have  a  long-range  barrel. 
Unless  I  am  much  mistaken,  I  heard  some  baby-squealing 
over  there :  it's  their  breeding  season,  you  know." 

The  fig-tamarinds  formed  a  continuous  arbor  along  the 
crest  of  the  ridge,  tree  joined  to  tree  by  bush-ropes  and  the 
thorny  mistletoe  ( Viscum  ruhnmi),  with  the  accumulated 
brambles  of  many  years'  growth.  As  we  approached,  the 
chattering  of  the  monos  receded  :  they  had  evidently  espied 
us,  though  we  were  yet  unable  to  judge  even  of  their  ap- 
proximate whereabouts,  except  by  the  occasional  shaking 
of  a  branch  or  the  sudden  flight  of  a  nest-bird  from  the 
tree-tops.  Still,  we  could  see  that  the  whole  trooj)  was 
moving  in  the  same  general  direction,  and,  hoping  to  profit 
by  the  confusion  of  a  panic,  we  concluded  to  head  them  off 
and  let  our  Indians  disorder  tiieir  retreat  with  a  shower  of 
clubs.     But  the  sapajous  proved  that  they  could  combine 


378  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

circumspection  with  speed,  and  in  spite  of  an  audible  rush 
through  the  mistletoe-brambles  we  did  not  get  sight  enough 
for  a  snap  shot  till  the  sly  scramblers  reached  an  hiatus 
in  their  covered  way,  a  gap  in  the  roof  of  the  long  arbor 
occasioned  by  the  fall  of  a  dead  giant  tamarind.  All  was 
quiet  for  a  minute,  but  the  rattle  of  clubs  came  nearer  and 
nearer,  and  presently  a  bold  blockade-runner  cleared  the 
chasm  with  a  flying  leap  and  disappeared  in  the  network  of 
the  opposite  branches.  By  and  by  faces  and  hands  peeped 
from  their  leafy  hiding-places,  and  the  reviving  chatter 
showed  that  the  success  of  their  leader  had  restored  the 
confidence  of  the  fugitives.  A  middle-sized  mono  left  his 
lurking-place  and  clambered  boldly  up  a  dangling  liana 
into  a  higher  branch :  two  veterans  followed,  and  close 
on  their  heels  a  nursing  mona,  trying  to  keep  her  bantling 
out  of  sight  by  squeezing  herself  through  on  the  safe  side 
of  her  predecessors.  Our  guns  rose  together,  and  at  the 
first  report  the  mona  doubled  herself  up  like  a  person 
in  a  fit  of  cramps,  and  at  the  second  flung  herself  back 
with  a  convulsive  leap  into  the  lower  branches,  where  a 
rustling  scramble  and  the  simultaneous  shaking  of  several 
vines  showed  the  numerical  strength  of  the  remaining 
troop. 

While  we  strained  our  eyes  to  discover  the  whereabouts 
of  our  victim,  I  spied  another  mona,  with  a  much  larger 
baby,  slipping  noiselessly  behind  the  next  largest  branch, 
through  one  of  whose  forks  her  brown  head  reappeared  a 
minute  after,  looking  exactly  like  a  spongy  protuberance  or 
a  loose  piece  of  bark.  But  if  I  had  doubted  the  first  tes- 
timony of  my  senses,  a  slight  movement  of  the  apparent 
excrescence  reassured  me ;  so,  crouching  down,  I  rested  my 
gun-barrel  on  the  knob  of  my  walking-stick  and  took  a 
cautious  aim  at  the  saddle  of  the  fork.     With  and  like  the 


THE  BACKWOODS  OF  GUATEMALA. 


379 


flash  the  liead  disappeared,  hut  the  commotion  in  the 
branches  now  sounded  like  the  struggle  of  a  dying  animal 
beating  its  body  against  a  twig,  till  the  leafy  screen  parted 


LOVE    AFTER    DEATH. 

and  one  of  our  monas  came  down  with  a  heavy  thud ; 
which  of  them  I  am  unable  to  say,  for  the  baby,  which  still 
clung  to  her  neck  and  eyed  us  in  a  reproa(,'lil"ul  way,  seemed 
somehow  of  a  medium  size  between  the  first  and  the  second 
we  had  seen  with  their  living  dams.  I  should  have  liked 
to  keep  it  for  a  pet,  and  my  guide  had  already  made  a  nest 


380  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

for  it  in  his  bundle  of  sundries,  when  an  examination  of  its 
limbs  showed  a  double  fracture  of  its  left  forearm ;  so  we 
permitted  our  dog  to  put  it  out  of  its  misery.  As  soon  as 
we  shouldered  our  guns  the  rest  of  the  troop  broke  out  en 
masse,  showering  down  leaves  and  excrement  in  their  head- 
long flight ;  but,  seeing  there  would  be  no  pursuit,  they 
stopped  in  the  next  high  trees  to  vent  their  feelings  in  a 
chattering  indignation-meeting. 

A  panther-cat  jumps  four  or  five  feet  farther  than  any 
monkey  of  the  same  size,  but  no  other  animal  rivals  the 
quadrumana  in  the  ease  of,  the  absence  of  any  visible  effort 
in,  their  rapid  movements.  Still  more  astonishing  is  the 
quickness  of  their  eye  and  what  I  might  call  the  retentive- 
ness  of  their  visual  memory.  At  a  single  glance  a  flying 
monkey  seems  able  to  precalculate  the  direction  and  the 
length  of  the  next  dozen  jumps  to  a  fraction  of  an  inch, 
and  then  dash  ahead  through  branches  and  tangled  vines 
at  a  height  of  perhaps  eighty  feet  from  the  ground,  yet 
with  his  head  turned  back  and  his  eyes  fixed  on  his  pur- 
suer. And  this  in  forests  abounding  with  spinescent  trees 
and  creepers  which  neither  man  nor  monkey  could  grasp 
without  lacerating  his  hands  !  To  the  three  things  which 
are  too  wonderful,  while  the  fourth  is  too  queer,  for  human 
comprehension  (Proverbs  xxx.  18)  King  Solomon  should 
have  added  the  way  of  a  monkey  through  a  liana-tangle. 

We  found  several  pieces  of  mica  on  the  western  declivity 
of  the  ridge,  and  the  mayoral  seemed  inclined  to  return  and 
prospect  the  upper  cliffs,  but  our  guide  was  getting  fidgety. 
"  Nos  vamos  a  chingar :  we  are  going  to  catch  it  before 
night,"  he  said.  "  Look  at  the  sky  back  there,  as  murky  as 
pitch-smoke,  and  the  oaprimulgas  swarming  like  swallows." 

We  regained  the  valley  by  following  a  rambla,  or  dry 
ravine,  and  found  the  Indian's  apprehensions  confirmed. 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  381 

Before  we  reached  the  river-shore  crescendo  thunder-echoes 
boomed  from  the  glens  of  the  Dolores  range,  and  the  pur- 
ring night-hawks  [Caprimulgas)  had  turned  out  in  swarms, 
as  if  the  day  were  waning.  An  awkward  place  to  weather 
a  tropical  rainstorm, — wilderness  all  around,  except  on  a 
range  of  hills  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  the 
upper  slopes  had  been  partly  cleared.  On  one  of  these 
clearings  I  thought  I  discerned  the  wliite  walls  of  a  stone- 
built  rancho  or  limekiln.  The  river  seemed  shallow  enough 
to  be  easily  forded :  could  we  reach  that  building  before 
night  ? 

"  The  matter  is  this,"  said  the  mayoral,  after  a  topograph- 
ical council  with  the  two  Indians :  *'  your  guide  wants  to 
know  if  you  would  prefer  a  sure  drenching  to  the  possi- 
bility of  getting  into  a  mosquito-trap?  As  a  sleeping- 
place  the  rancho  would  be  preferable,  but  it  is  fully  three 
leagues  from  here,  and  there  is  an  old  logwood-cliopper's 
camp  on  this  side  of  the  river  not  more  than  a  mile  ahead." 

An  ominous  moaning  in  the  tree-tops  bia.sed  our  consul- 
tation :  the  next  shelter  seemed  the  best.  The  shores  of  the 
principal  rivers  of  Guatemala  and  Southern  Mexico  are 
dotted  with  the  camps  of  the  Icneros  or  logwood-men,  the 
most  useful  pioneers  of  the  backwoods  States, — path-n)akers 
rather  than  desert-makers,  since,  unlike  our  professional 
lumberers,  they  confine  their  attacks  to  a  single  species  of 
trees — trees  which  are  neither  the  finest,  nor,  aside  from  their 
chromatic  properties,  the  most  useful,  of  the  abounding  ti- 
erra  caliente.  Their  casuchas,  or  temporary  huts,  are  of  the 
rudest  description,  having  neither  windows  nor  that  sine 
qua  non  of  a  habitable  Northern  log-shanty,  a  fireplace ; 
but  the  woodcraft  of  the  builders  is  generally  attested  by 
a  weather-tight  roof.  In  the  camp  on  the  ujiper  ^^os(•on 
we  had  the  choice  between  four  well-roofed  c^isuchas,  atldi- 


382  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

tionally  sheltered  by  a  canopy  of  mighty  cecropia-trees,  and 
not  much  the  worse  for  having  been  abandoned  six  years 
ago,  such  trifling  inconveniences  as  transparent  walls  and  a 
rickety  floor  being  probably  original  defects. 

While  we  made  a  bonfire  of  the  dry  leaves  and  chips 
which  covered  the  bottom  of  our  chosen  casucha  we  became 
aware  of  the  fact  that  the  forest  around  us  had  turned  dark, 
— darker  than  a  London  reading-room  during  a  fog, — 
though  by  my  watch  the  next  two  hours  seemed  yet  to  be 
entitled  to  a  fair  share  of  daylight ;  and  when,  finally,  the 
rain  came  down  in  sheets  and  cataracts,  a  person  suddenly- 
awakened  from  a  long  slumber  would  have  been  unable  to 
say  if  the  faint  shimmer  between  the  riverward  tree-tops 
emanated  from  the  sun  or  from  a  waning  moon. 

The  fury  of  the  rain  abated  after  a  sudden  shifting  of 
the  wind,  but  the  untimely  twilight  continued  for  half  an 
hour  :  our  dog  barked  furiously  at  the  foot  of  a  little  gum- 
tree  not  more  than  forty  yards  from  our  hut,  but  we  tried 
in  vain  to  distinguish  more  than  the  dim  outlines  of  an 
animated  object  in  the  upper  branches  of  the  tree.  It 
looked  too  round  for  an  iguana,  too  small  for  a  bear,  and 
much  too  sluggish  for  a  monkey  or  wild-cat. 

"  There  are  two  or  three  of  them,"  said  the  peon,  after 
walking  close  up  to  the  tree  through  the  drizzling  rain, — 
"  raccoons  or  young  bears  I  should  say,  and  in  no  hurry  to 
leave,  by  the  way  they  are  crawling  around.  They  keep 
close  together  :  you  might  bring  them  down  with  a  single 
shot." 

"  Kill  them,  but  not  bring  them  down,"  said  the  senor. 
"  I  would  bet  my  gun  that  I  know  what  they  are, — a  brown 
tarda"  (sloth)  "  with  her  young  ones.  The  black  variety 
is  not  nearly  so  sluggish,  and  no  raccoon  or  bear  in  the 
world  would  stand  that  amount  of  noise  without  getting 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  383 

out  of  the  way.  If  brown  sloths  find  a  tree  that  suits  tliem, 
they  stick  to  it,  dead  or  alive ;  for  if  you  shoot  them  the 
carcass  hangs  on  by  its  hooked  claws  till  the  feet  rot  away." 

The  wind  turned  chilly,  and  just  before  sunset  the  western 
sky  cleared,  and  brightened  the  woods  with  a  reddish  light. 
We  made  ourselves  comfortable  for  the  night,  and  identilied 
our  silent  neighbors.  Don  Nicolas  was  right :  they  were  a 
family  of  brown  sloths,  crawling  slowly  along  the  branches, 
— slowly  and  placidly,  like  insects  rather  than  like  arboreal 
mammals,  which  as  a  rule  are  the  liveliest  creatures  of 
Nature.  I  believe  there  is  no  doubt  that  wild  animals 
enjoy  rain,  a  warm  rain  especially  :  in  a  tropical  woodland 
a  good  shoAver  after  a  sultry  day  awakens  the  same  grunt- 
ing and  screeching  acclaims  that  greet  the  rising  sun  or  the 
discovery  of  a  bonanza  of  palatable  food.  To  the  naked 
savage  too  the  glowing  sunshine  is  perhaps  a  comfortable 
warm-air  bath,  and  a  cloudburst  an  agreeable  shower-bath. 
To  the  children  of  Nature,  I  suspect,  naturalia  non  smU 
soeva  any  more  than  turpia. 

While  we  suspended  our  hammocks  under  the  eaves  of 
the  roof  my  Indian  guide  spread  his  thin  blanket  between 
the  threshold  and  the  root  of  our  ])rotecting  tree,  j)referring 
the  chilly  wind  to  the  broken  floor.  The  only  j)iece  of 
level  plank  had  been  occupied  l)y  the  old  peon,  who  was 
already  snoring,  with  his  poncho  on  a  leather  })ouch  for  a 
pillow,  and  no  covering  at  all. 

"  It  is  curious  what  a  hardy  education  will  do  for  a  man," 
said  Don  Nicolas.  "  That  old  chap  would  rather  sleep  on 
a  pile  of  cobblestones  or  in  a  hollow  tree  than  go  half  a 
mile  out  of  his  way  for  the  finest  feather  bed  in  America. 
You  have  seen  him  walk  barefoot  through  the  jungle,  and 
he  used  to  do  the  same  in  winter-time  up  in  the  Durango 
mountains,  with  four  inches  of  snow  on  the  ground.     Yonr 


384  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

priests  and  city  people  may  affect  to  pity  the  '  poor  Indians/ 
but  if  the  duendes^'  (the  fate-fairies)  "  offered  to  grant  me 
one  wish,  and  only  one,  I  should  be  much  tempted  to  choose 
perfect  health  in  preference  to  any  other  kind  of  perfection." 
The  night  was  moist  but  still,  and  we  could  plainly  hear 
the  squealing  of  a  troop  of  peccaris  in  the  neighboring 
jungle, — loug-clrawn  squeals,  closely  resembling  the  quaver- 
ing nocturrio  of  a  group  of  recumbent  barn-yard  hogs. 
From  a  greater  distance  we  heard  occasionally  the  low 
wailing  cry  of  a  mono  espedro,  or  night-monkey,  a  small 
quadrumanous  animal  allied  to  the  lemures,  and  very  rarely 
seen  in  daytime. 

One  great  advantage  of  a  woodland  over  a  treeless  country 
is  the  purity  of  its  rivers  and  creeks,  an  all-present  vege- 
tation acting  as  a  filter  and  purifying  the  running  water 
before  it  reaches  the  larger  streams.  Travellers  in  the 
United  States  often  wonder  at  the  contrast  of  the  blue 
Susquehanna  and  the  clear  Ohio  to  the  turbid  waters  of 
the  West.  The  Mississippi  Valley  forms  the  dividing- 
line  between  the  great  East  American  sylvanias  and  the 
treeless  Central  States,  as  we  should  call  them,  for  the  true 
West,  California  and  Oregon,  can  vie  with  West  Virginia 
in  arboreal  wealth  and  the  purity  of  the  streams.  The  rains 
of  that  winter  night  would  have  flooded  a  Kansas  river 
with  a  swill-deluge  of  fluid  mud,  but  the  Rio  Moscon 
looked  as  limpid  and  almost  as  shallow  as  on  the  preceding 
afternoon:  the  dense  vegetation  of  the  surrounding  hills 
had  absorbed  the  water  like  a  sponge,  to  deal  it  out  in 
driblets  of  never-failing  springs. 

Six  miles  above  our  last  camping-ground  the  river  forked: 
we  followed  the  southwestern  arm,  which  issues  directly 
from  the  canons  of  the  Sierra  Negra,  while  its  tributary 
curves  around  the  eastern  spur  of  the  main  range.     We 


THE   BACKWOODS   OF   GUATEMALA.  385 

now  had  to  breast  pretty  steep  up-grades,  and  before  long 
the  increasing  altitude  began  to  tell  upon  the  vegetation  : 
the  palms  shrank  to  palmettos,  and  the  blue-green  euphorbia 
groves  were  succeeded  by  co])ses  of  cypress-  and  Junij)er- 
trees  and  Qtsiie\y  pinaheles,  or  mountain-larches.  Piflales,  or 
pineries,  the  Spaniards  call  these  hill-forests,  as  we  would 
speak  of  a  "  strawberry-patch"  in  the  mountains,  where  a 
few  strawberry-plants  are  scattered  among  hundreds  of  other 
herbs  and  grasses.  Unmixed  pine  woods  are  hardly  ever 
seen  south  of  the  twenty-fifth  parallel,  for  even  in  the 
heights  of  the  tierra  fria  the  stunted  fir-bushes  are  mingled 
Math  rhododendrons  and  rock-birches. 

On  the  eastern  slope  of  our  ridge  the  acacias  and  tama- 
rinds were  still  in  full  bloom,  and  on  the  opposite  bank  of 
a  steep  canon  we  saw  a  veritable  arboreal  nosegay,  a  clump 
of  feather- mimosas,  whose  sweet-smelling  white  and  lilac 
flowers  had  attracted  a  cloud  of  butterflies,  \\hich,  seen 
across  the  gorge,  seemed  to  swarm  like  bees  around  a  new 
hive.  Only  a  ^^ainter  could  do  justice  to  the  brilliant  lepi- 
dopteral  insects  which  frequent  the  sunny  sides  of  this  ter- 
race-land :  I  saw  some  sphinges  and  a  rare  variety  of  the 
genus  Colia  which  sorely  tempted  me  to  encamp  on  the  spot 
and  devote  a  day  to  entomology.  The  Papilio  phocbus, 
especially,  seems  to  find  a  congenial  home  on  the  flowery 
leas  of  these  uplands,  as  does  a  milk-white  Vanessa  with  a 
border  of  flame-colored  rings  and  dots ;  also  a  dark-green 
humming-bird  moth,  which  here  appears  long  before  twi- 
light, and,  darting  from  bush  to  bush  or  hovering  with 
quickly-vibrating  wings,  looks  exactly  like  the  TrochUus 
colubris,  or  emerald  colibri,  of  Southern  Mexico. 

Soon  after  entering  the  piilal  we  met  a  solitary  wanderer, 
a  little  Indian  fox-hound,  whose  master  was  chopi)ing  wood 
somewhere  up  in  tlie  sierra,  leaving  his  poor  cur  to  take  his 


386  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

breakfast  out  of  such  opossums  or  nest-birds  as  he  might 
fall  in  with  on  his  lonely  rambles.  A  chip  of  dried  beef 
attached  the  hungry  stranger  to  our  company,  and,  after 
conciliating  Leoncito  by  several  reverend  prostrations,  he 
followed  us  at  a  distance  and  began  to  range  the  thickets 
along  onr  line  of  march.  Hunting-dogs  stimulate  each 
other  :  Leoncito  joined  in  the  search.  Before  long  the  fox- 
hound gave  tongue,  and  two  minutes  later  we  heard  a  bay : 
they  seemed  to  have  treed  tlieir  game  at  the  first  heat  or 
run  upon  a  peccari  sow  with  a  litter  of  pigs  to  defend. 
The  bay  seemed  stationary ;  so,  handing  our  share  of  the 
cargo  to  the  Indians,  we  cocked  our  shot-guns  and  entered 
the  thicket  at  a  trot.  There  we  had  them.  What  could  it 
be  ?  The  dogs  were  standing  round  a  low  bush,  their  game 
hidden  by  the  lower  branches  and  a  few  tufts  of  bamboo- 
grass  not  more  than  fourteen  inches  high.  Could  they  have 
raised  all  this  din  about  an  opossum  or  a  coiled-up  arma- 
dillo? But  no:  getting  sight  of  us,  Leoncito  made  a  rush 
forward,  but  as  quickly  sprang  back.  A  long  claw  had 
darted  out  at  him  like  a  stiletto :  the  customer  he  had  to 
deal  with  was  evidently  averse  to  familiarities. 

"  Hallo  !  a  hormiguero, — an  ant-bear  !"  said  Don  Nicolas. 
"  Did  you  see  his  fangs  ?  Take  care  !  stand  over  on  this 
side." 

It  was  a  curious  sight :  a  young  ant-bear  {Ifyrmecophaga 
gigas),  about  the  size  and  weight  of  a  full-grown  panther, 
lay  flat  on  his  back,  guarding  his  body  with  his  poised 
claws,  each  toe  armed  with  a  fang  as  long  as  a  boar's  tusk 
and  as  sharp  as  a  penknife,  his  head  slightly  raised  and  his 
eye,  gleaming  like  bright  steel,  restraining  its  wink  for  fear 
of  losing  the  slightest  movement  of  the  adversary.  With 
the  same  glittering  eye,  expressive  of  the  same  determina- 
tion to  make  the  most  of  his  one  chance,  I  have  seen  a 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF   GUATEMALA. 


387 


swordsman  with  poised  sabre  watching  the  advance  of  a 
knife-armed  foe :  at  close  quarters  the  sabre  would  be  use- 
less, but  its  first  stroke  may  be  fatal,  both  jiartics  knowing 
this,  and  fully  aware  that  the  first  n)istake  will  decide  the 
game.  The  legs  of  the  ant-bear  are  too  stiflf  to  be  turned 
inward  or  upward  with  much  effect,  but  a  sidelong  stroke 
of  those  awkward  paws  will  rip  a  dog  from  throat  to  tail 


AN    ANT-UEAR    AT    HAY. 


or  gash  a  man's  leg  to  the  bone  in  spite  of  gaiters  and  cow- 
hide boots. 

Don  Nicolas  at  last  whistled  his  dog  off",  and  the  ant-bear, 
suddenly  getting  sight  of  us,  regained  his  feet  and  started 
to  run;  but  danger  now  threatened  him  from  too  many 
sides,  and  from  the  first  unguarded  point  the  fox-liouud 
leaped  upon  him  with  a  sudden  spring,  and   had   him   by 


388  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

the  neck  at  the  first  grip ;  and,  cheered  by  his  master's  hal- 
loo, Leoucito  in  the  next  moment  grabbed  him  from  the 
other  side  and  pinned  his  head  to  the  ground.  He  brought 
his  hind  feet  into  play  and  Leoncito  came  in  for  a  few  ugly 
scratches,  but  between  them  the  dogs  had  him  foul :  his 
desperate  eflPorts  to  turn  on  his  back  were  unavailing.  The 
fox-hound  at  last  got  an  under  grip  on  his  throat,  and  now 
for  the  first  time  the  hitherto  mute  hormiguero  raised  his 
voice, — a  rasping  grunt,  rising  quickly  into  ear-  and  soul- 
harrowing  shrieks,  more  piercing  than  the  shrillest  screech 
of  a  wet  slate  scraped  with  a  blunt  caseknife.  I  felt  sorry 
for  the  poor  devil,  but  there  was  no  help  for  him :  the  dogs 
were  covered  with  blood,  and  could  not  be  whistled  off  now 
without  exposing  them  to  the  full  vengeance  of  those  long 
hooks  that  clawed  the  ground  with  impatient  rage. 

"  Malgasto  es  pecado^'  ("  All  waste  is  sinful"),  said  the 
thrifty  Mexican  when  I  raised  my  gun,  "  but  you  are  right : 
let  us  be  merciful ;"  and  approaching  his  victim  from  behind 
with  his  long  hunting-knife,  he  showed  him  what  hunters 
call  "  mercy"  by  cutting  his  throat  from  ear  to  ear. 

During  our  absence  our  Indians  had  been  more  usefully 
employed  in  routing  out  a  nest  of  dwarf  rattlesnakes  which 
they  had  discovered  at  the  wayside.  The  gusano  infernal, 
or  "  hell-worm,"  is  not  much  longer  than  some  of  the 
largest  tropical  caterpillars, — from  ten  to  twelve  inches, 
about  sixteen  inches  as  the  maximum, — in  color  not  unlike 
the  yellow  Texas  rattlesnake,  which  it  also  resembles  in  its 
general  appearance,  its  harmless  end  being  decorated  with 
two  or  three  horny  capsules  which  produce  a  faint  rattling 
sound.  But  this  epitome  of  the  Orotalus  horridus  rivals  its 
big  relative  in  the  deadliness  of  its  venom,  and  its  very  puni- 
ness  makes  it  the  most  dreaded  reptile  of  Central  America. 
In  grass  or  stunted  herbs,  where  the  Northern  rattlesnake 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  .'^89 

would  betray  itself  at  a  distance  of  twenty  yards,  its  trop- 
ical congener  finds  a  safe  hiding-place,  and  its  rattle  is  gen- 
erally too  feeble  to  be  of  mucii  use  as  a  warning  signal. 
The  old  peon  had  discovered  a  large  conventicle  of  the  imps 
under  a  ledge  of  slate-rock,  and  mashed  eight  of  them  with 
the  butt  of  his  blunderbuss, — repulsive  little  creatures, 
writhing  in  the  sand  like  overgrown  leeches. 

"  By  rare  good  luck  they  are  very  sluggish  brutes,"  said 
the  mayoral :  "  they  will  not  strike  unless  you  are  about  to 
tread  on  them ;  but  if  you  do — and  they  will  do  nothing 
to  prevent  it — oiF  they  go  like  a  spring-gun,  and  a  man 
may  think  himself  lucky  if  he  gets  off  with  twenty-four 
hours'  fever  and  a  week's  headache  after  exhausting  all 
remedies.  Children  mostly  die,  and  nothing  can  save  a  dog, 
so  far  as  I  know." 

"  What  remedies  do  you  apply  ?" 

"Bleeding  and  heroic  doses  of  persjco"  (bitter-peacii 
brandy),  "repeated  alternately  till  you  swoon.  The  In- 
dians use  an  abominable  decoction  of  a  stuff  that  tastes 
like  a  mixture  of  tobacco  and  quinine,  and  throws  you  into 
a  delirium  of  gastric  fever;  and  an  old  wretch  of  a  half- 
breed  medicine-man  of  my  acquaintance  used  to  bleed  his 
patients  by  slitting  their  ears,  on  the  theory  that  a  man  will 
not  die  as  long  as  you  can  keep  his  brain  clear." 

The  nostrum  used  by  the  Guatemala  natives  I  afterward 
ascertained  to  be  an  infusion  of  Papaver  nanum,  or  bastard 
poppy,  a  plant  that  frequents  the  open  glades  of  the  western 
sierras  and  is  sometimes  cultivated  for  its  intoxicating  j)rop- 
erties.  The  rationale  of  all  snake-remedies,  by  the  by,  seems 
to  be  founded  on  the  circumstance  that  two  diseases  cannot 
coexist  in  the  human  body,  and  the  effects  of  most  poisons 
can  be  prevented  by  a  swifter  toxic  agent.  On  the  siime 
principle,  a  sore  eye  may  be  cured  l)y  inducing  an  artificial 

26 


390  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

inflammation  on  the  upper  part  of  the  neck,  and  the  seeds 
of  consumption,  though  their  fruit  is  death,  will  for  years 
prevent  the  development  of  any  other  disease. 

An  hour  after  midday  we  passed  the  Portello  de  Esmar- 
cada,  a  gap  in  the  eastern  or  lower  chain  of  the  Sierra  Negra, 
and,  standing  on  the  brink  of  the.  western  slope,  we  beheld 
our  next  objective  point,  the  Lago  de  Tortugas,  a  triangular 
highland  tarn  which  forms  the  source  of  the  main  fork  of 
the  Rio  Moscon.  The  valley  between  the  two  main  chains 
of  the  sierra,  with  their  magnificent  terraces,  is  traversed 
by  the  dividing-line  between  the  departments  of  Vera  Paz 
and  Chiquimulga,  and  is  dotted  with  little  lakes,  and  on 
the  western  slope  with  villages  and  haciendas,  whose  clear- 
ings, viewed  from  this  height,  looked  like  bright-green 
lawns  in  a  frame  of  pine  forests.  At  the  head  of  the  Lago 
de  Tortugas  stands  the  little  village  of  the  same  name, 
whose  nucleus  is  formed  by  a  rendezvous  of  turtle-egg 
hunters,  who  make  this  point  their  head -quarters,  whence 
they  visit  the  rivers  and  smaller  lakes  of  the  valley  if  the 
report  of  their  scouts  has  announced  a  bonanza  de  huevos. 

"  If  your  countrymen  are  good  ditchers  they  can  pay 
their  land-rent  in  turtle-eggs,"  observed  the  seiior:  "the 
agents  of  the  Guatemalan  government  will  take  a  hundred 
fresh  eggs,  in  lieu  of  a  peso  fuerte"  (one  dollar  and  a  quarter), 
"  in  payment  of  all  dues  and  taxes,  or  buy  them  at  any 
time  at  three-fourths  of  that  rate.  Scientific  mining  too 
would  pay  almost  anywhere  in  the  main  range :  if  I  were 
not  so  completely  out  of  cash  I  would  build  a  quicksilver- 
furnace  about  ten  miles  northeast  of  your  reservation.  The 
lead  ores  of  the  old  Izatlan  mines  would  pay  sixty  dollars 
to  the  ton  if  they  were  correctly  handled." 

Following  the  windings  of  the  Val  de  Tortugas  in  a 
southerly  direction,  the  lake  dawns  gradually  upon  your 


THE  BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  39] 

view  through  an  opening  screen  of  magnolias  and  cork-oaks, 
but,  standing  upon  the  brink  of  its  steep  shores,  a  scene 
uniting  so  much  lovehness  to  such  grandeur  would  still  be 
a  surprise  even  to  a  senior  member  of  the  London  Traveller's 
Club, — the  charms  of  Pennsylvania  and  Piedmont  combined, 
Erie  Bay  framed  with  Alps  and  Apennines,  or  Lago  Ticino 
wreathed  with  the  fine  forests  whose  loss  the  Italian  lakes 
have  mourned  for  the  last  eighteen  centuries.  A  deep-blue 
lake,  about  twenty  miles  in  circumference  and  fed  by  innu- 
merable rivulets,  which  come  down  on  the  western  or  sierra 
side  in  a  series  of  tiny  waterfalls,  forming  as  many  shady 
bays  on  the  south  shore, — a  lake  that  will  yet  be  a  favorite 
resort  of  pleasure-  and  health-seekers,  but  whose  clear  waters 
have  never  yet  been  furrowed  by  the  keel  of  a  sailboat  or 
even  by  a  prosaic  ferry  :  the  shiftless  natives  prefer  a  circuit 
of  several  miles  to  the  trouble  of  constructing  a  transit-boat, 
and  their  wretched  dug-outs  hug  the  shore  and  never  leave 
their  landing  in  rough  weather. 

About  six  miles  south  of  the  outlet  (the  head  of  the  Rio 
Moscon)  we  reached  the  first  houses,  an  Indian  farm-hovel 
and  a  little  tendajo  or  cross-road  store  kept  by  a  mestizo 
"merchant,"  as  he  styled  himself.  We  halted  at  the  shoj), 
but  found  the  door  locked,  and,  looking  around,  discovered 
a  long  wooden  born  dangling  from  the  porch,  and  above  it 
a  board  with  the  following  inscription  in  rather  phonetic; 
Spanish  :  "  If  Sr.  Matias  the  merchant  is  not  at  iiome,  apply 
to  the  next  neighbor  or  wind  the  horn." 

"  Don  Matias  is  out  in  the  sierra  grouse-hunting,"  ex- 
plained the  next  neighbor:  "you'll  have  to  give  him  a 
good  blast  or  two." 

For  the  fun  of  the  thing  I  tried  the  primitive  telephone, 
a  tube  of  taxus-wood  six  feet  long,  with  a  knuckle-bone 
for  a  mouthpiece,  but  all  my  efforts  resulted  in  an  inglorious 


392  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

grunt,  a  gurgling  splutter.  I  might  as  well  have  tried  to 
get  music  out  of  a  bean-shooter. 

"  Never  mind,"  laughed  the  mayoral :  "  I  only  wanted 
to  buy  a  few  pounds  of  sugar,  but  I  guess  we  can  get  enough 
at  Don  Gascar's  pulque-shop,  where  we  are  going  to  stop 
to-night," 

Imagine  a  storekeeper  of  a  New  England  valley  request- 
ing his  customers  to  summon  him  with  a  cowhorn,  perhaps 
from  the  hunting-grounds  of  the  upper  White  Mountains ! 

The  village,  with  its  miserable  shanties  embowered  in 
walnut  groves  and  copses  of  l)looming  cecropias,  proved 
that  arboreal  vegetation  can  ennoble  almost  any  archi- 
tecture, while  its  absence  will  leave  an  aching  void  in  a 
city  of  palaces.  Let  travellers  compare  our  Savannah  with 
Turkish  Damascus :  here  a  garden-city  in  a  wilderness  of 
swamps,  there  a  wilderness  of  whitewashed  sepulchres  in  a 
garden-land. 

"Oh,  Juan  !"  the  mayoral  hailed  one  of  the  house-boys 
when  we  had  deposited  our  luggage  in  a  back  room  of  the 
pulque-shop,  "  do  you  think  you  could  find  old  Martin, — 
old  Martin  Santiago,  you  know  ?" 

"  I  guess  I  could,  sir." 

"  Well,  then,  run  like  a  good  lad  and  tell  him  to  come 
over  here :  I  want  to  treat  him  and  introduce  him  to  this 
gentleman." 

"Santiago?     Who  is  he?  a  local  celebrity?" 

"  Not  exactly  :  local  marvels  are  rarely  appreciated  by  the 
natives,  you  know  ;  but  he  is  a  great  curiosity,  nevertheless. 
Have  you  ever  heard  of  a  man  cutting  a  third  set  of  teeth  ?" 

"  I  heard  of  it,  but  I  did  not  believe  it." 

"  Well,  you  will  have  to  believe  it  now.  This  old  man 
was  sweeping  and  scrubbing  floors  in  the  San  Jos6  custom- 
house for  more  than  twelve  years,  and  there  are  hundreds 


THE   BACKWOODS   OF  GUATEMALA.  393 

of  persons  who  can  testify  that  he  hadn't  a  tooth  in  his  nioiitli 
when  he  left  there;  but  after  roughing  it  for  a  couple  of 
years  in  his  native  pueblo,  where  he  had  to  chew  parclied 
corn  bread  and  acorns,  his  jaws  revived :  he  cast  his  old 
snags  and  got  a  new  set, — as  pretty  as  any  dentist  could 
make  him, — after  being  plagued  with  gum-aches  like  a 
teething  child  for  several  months.  Three  years  ago  he 
went  down  to  San  Jose  with  a  load  of  eggs,  and  happened 
to  meet  Dr.  Ortez,  the  quarantine  physician,  who  iiad  seen 
him  nearly  every  day  in  his  toothless  condition,  and  didn't 
know  if  he  could  believe  his  own  eyes  when  ho  noticed  the 
anamorphosis.  But,  being  a  man  of  methodical  business 
habits,  he  gave  the  old  fellow  an  appointment,  invited  two 
dozen  mutual  acquaintances,  and  made  them  sign  an  affi- 
davit to  the  above  facts." 

We  were  just  going  to  supper  when  Juancito  returned. 
"  Here  he  is  now,"  he  whispered,  drawing  me  back  behind 
the  door. 

Mr.  Santiago  had  entered  the  adjoining  bar-room, — a 
brawny  old  Indio,  well  built,  but  with  a  baboonish  cast  of 
countenance  and  with  an  animal  fire  in  his  hollow  eyes 
which,  like  a  ray  flashing  through  vacant  night,  only  served 
to  make  darkness  visible. 

After  a  short  conversation  with  the  bartender  he  strolled 
into  our  room  and  announced  himself  with  a  grunt,  raising 
his  hand  in  an  awkward  imitation  of  a  military  salute. 

"  How  are  you,  Don  Martin?  Sit  down.  What  is  your 
present  occupation,  sefior  ?" 

"  Occupation  ?" 

"  How  are  you  getting  on,  I  mean  ?  w^hat  are  you  working 

at?" 

"Curing  plantains,  seilor.  I  am  boarding  with  Mr. 
Herrera, — Juan  Herrera's  brother,  you  Icnow." 


394  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

"  Just  think  of  that !"  said  Don  Nicolas, — "  doing  farm- 
work  like  a  young  man  !  He  is  nearly  seventy  years  old 
now." 

"  Indeed  !  You  are  looking  remarkably  hearty  for  your 
age  :  what  is  your  diet,  Don  Martin  ?  What  do  you  gen- 
erally eat,  I  mean  ?" 

"  I  generally  get  corn  bread  and  beans,  seiior, — wheat 
bread  on  Sunday." 

The  mayoral  made  me  examine  his  teeth,  and  I  found 
his  lower  jaw  and  all  his  incisors  perfectly  sound,  two  of 
the  upper  molars  being  slightly  carious.  His  front  teeth 
were  white  and  even,  like  a  young  girl's,  and  disproportion- 
ately small  compared  with  his  defective  molars. 

"Do  you  eat  any  meat?"  I  asked. 

"  Yes,  senor.  But  no — "  with  a  sudden  gleam  of  suspi- 
cion— "  not  to-day — oh  no,  not  on  Friday,  senor."  I  might 
be  a  masked  priest,  for  all  he  knew. 

"  Do  you  like  pulque  ?" 

"Si,  senor, '^  his  countenance  brightening:  the  bishop 
himself  would  not  traverse  such  an  impeachment. 

"  Do  you  take  any — aguardiente  ?" 

"  Yes,  senor.  You  know"  (half-apologetically)  "  a  man 
needs  zafarse  de  su  memoria — wants  to  get  rid  of  his  mem- 
ory— once  in  a  while." 

Get  rid  of  his  memory  !  After  all,  that  is  the  only  valid 
excuse  a  man  can  plead  for  admitting  the  "  enemy  that 
steals  away  his  brains ;"  but  where  did  a  savage  learn  that 
humiliating  truth?  Could  it  be  that  the  happiness  of 
that  golden  age  which  mankind  may  "  learn  to  forego,  but 
never  to  forget,"  was  founded  upon  habits  from  which  the 
ignorant  children  of  the  wilderness  have  strayed  as  far  as 
the  sickly  city-dwellers,  only  in  a  different  direction  ? 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   VIRGIN   WOODS   OF   THE   SIERRA   NEGRA. 

Is  this  my  birthland  ?     Has  this  echo  wakened 
Dim  recollections  of  a  former  home  ? — Lenau. 

The  English  language  has  no  indigenous  word  for  that 
curious  psychic  phenomenon  which  Jean  Paul  calls  the 
"  dualistic  mystery"  [das  Geheimniss  des  Dualismus),  and 
which  he  describes  as  "  a  revival  by  an  actual  event  of  a 
reminiscence  of  unknown  origin."  In  our  pilgrimage 
through  life  most  (perhaps  all)  of  us  have  met  with  adven- 
tures which  somehow  surprised  us  with  the  consciousness 
that  the  same  train  of  incidents,  in  the  same  succession  and 
under  the  same  circumstances,  iiad  somewhere  crossed  our 
path  before ;  not  in  a  dream  nor  in  a  fit  of  second  sight, — 
that  would  have  left  a  different  impression, — but  in  real  life, 
as  it  would  seem,  only  a  long  time  ago, — so  long  ago,  indeed, 
that  we  could  hardly  bridge  the  interval  without  some  com- 
promise with  the  doctrine  of  metempsychosis.  " 'Tis  a 
transmitted  experience,"  says  the  German  pantheist, — "an 
incident  in  the  life  of  one  of  our  forefathers,  the  recollection 
of  which  has  been  awakened  by  a  similar  occurrence  (like 
a  sleeper  starting  at  the  sound  of  his  own  name)  after  hav- 
ing lain  dormant  in  our  soul  together  with  millions  (»f  in- 
herited ideas,  opinions,  talents,  and  inclinations, — all  the 
result  of  ancestral  experience.  Each  human  brain  is  stamped 
with  the  records  of  all  preceding  generations." 

395 


396  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

On  the  same  principle  we  may  perhaps  explain  the 
strange  suggestiveness  of  certain  landscapes,  which  remind 
us  of  nothing  we  can  possibly  have  seen  before,  except, 
maybe,  with  the  eyes  of  an  ancestor, — with  eyes  which 
could  still  read  the  language  in  which  Nature  writes  her 
secrets  and  her  promises.  A  country  which  would  repel 
the  modern  agriculturist  by  its  ruggedness  and  the  city- 
dweller  by  its  solitude  might  thus  prove  attractive  to  those 
older  instincts  by  which  even  a  cockney  may  now  and  then 
recognize  the  original  home  of  his  species,  as  stall-born 
chamois  are  said  to  be  lured  away  by  the  sight  of  the  Alpine 
highlands.  In  the  mountains  of  Central  America  there 
are  regions  which  seem  peculiarly  adapted  to  all  the  re- 
quirements of  a  primitive  home,  having  a  comfortable  cli- 
mate, natural  shelter-places,  and  an  abundant  supply  of 
man-  and  monkey-food,  besides  a  variety  of  plants  whose 
bast  and  seed-cotton  might  be  used  for  rude  textile  fabrics. 
The  alturas,  or  wooded  uplands,  of  Eastern  Guatemala 
abound  especially  with  productions  of  that  kind ;  and  if 
the  American  Indians  are  real  autochthones  the  rivers  of 
the  Sierra  Negra  de  Vera  Paz  may  have  been  the  Pisons 
and  Gihons  of  the  Western  Paradise. 

The  government  lands  between  the  Val  de  Tortugas  and 
the  sources  of  the  Rio  Motagua  comprised  some  highland 
pastures  and  an  abandoned  lead-mine,  with  a  few  acres  of 
cleared  ground,  but  the  main  part  of  the  reservation  lay 
between  the  Val  de  Motagua  and  the  Rio  Polochique,  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  timber  region,  where  no  agricultural 
settlements  had  ever  been  attempted.  Before  committing 
my  countrymen  to  a  definite  contract  I  wanted  to  verify 
the  report  of  the  land-office  by  personal  inspection  of  the 
resources  and  market-facilities  of  this  region,  and,  if  possi- 
ble, get  the  government  to  assist  us  in  the  construction  of 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF  THE  SIERRA    NEGRA.  397 

a  wagon-road  to  Macultepec,  where  the  camino  real  to  the 
capital  crosses  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Moscon. 

We  left  Tortn<^as  an  hour  before  sunrise  on  the  third  of 
February, — in  the  midwinter  week,  here  corresponding  to 
the  early  spring  of  Southern  Texas  or  the  end  of  May  in 
the  Northern  Alleghanies.  Only  the  moonlight  kept  watch 
in  the  vineyards  of  the  little  village,  but  the  crests  of  the 
sierra  were  already  tinted  with  a  reflection  of  the  morning- 
clouds,  and  a  flock  of  tarn-geese  rose  screaming  from  the 
mist  of  the  lower  lake. 

"  We  are  going  to  have  a  warm  day,  caballeros,"  observed 
my  carrier.  "Look  at  those  red  mountains  up  there: 
that's  San  Florian's  weather-signal, — he's  heating  his  desi-- 
agumrliente^'  (fire-water  still). 

"  Never  mind,"  said  the  mayoral :  "  we  shall  be  in  the 
upper  sieri'a  ])efore  he  gets  his  machinery  a-working.  Do 
you  see  that  white  streak,  Don  Felix, — that  long  streak  of 
mist  south  of  the  sierra?  That's  the  valley  of  the  Rio 
Motagua.  If  your  countrymen  could  get  as  far  as  the  Ma- 
cultepec ferry,  they  would  have  a  good  country-road  to 
Port  Isabel,  with  twenty  markets  instead  of  one :  the  Hon- 
duras bergantins  call  there,  and  a  weekly  steamer  to  Sisal 
and  New  Orleans.  Port  Isabel  is  only  thirty-five  miles 
from  the  ferry." 

"  Couldn't  we  go  there  and  be  back  before  the  end  of 
this  week?" 

"  Yes,  if  they  do  not  delay  us  in  the  sierra.  We  might 
try  to  stop  at  Gil  Mateo's  ranch  to-night:  if  you  should 
find  him  at  home  he  could  give  yon  as  much  information  as 
all  the  natives  of  the  Indian  village." 

The  upper  slopes  of  the  Val  de  Tortugas  are  very  sparsely 
settled.  Near  Plan  del  Monte  we  passed  a  few  Indian  huts, 
with  a  patch  of  garden-land  and  a  field  whose  jiroprietor 


398  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

was  pulling  out  cornstalks  by  the  root.  Farther  up,  the 
trail  entered  a  thicket  of  catalpa  and  iron-wood  trees,  that 
seemed  to  mark  the  upper  boundary  of  the  agricultural 
region.  The  vegetation  of  these  slopes  on  the  whole  re- 
sembled that  of  the  Moscon  Valley,  but  when  we  began 
the  ascent  of  the  main  chain  the  dryer  air  and  the  dry,  aro- 
matic herbage  of  the  ravines  reminded  me  of  the  rainless 
hio-hlands  of  Southern  California.  There  was  but  little 
dew  on  the  grass,  and  the  morning  air  was  perfectly  free 
from  any  taint  of  swamp-mist ;  the  rivulets  were  as  clear  as 
plate  glass,  and  the  leaves  rustled  under  our  feet  as  if  they 
had  been  dried  in  a  hop-loft. 

It  is  hard  to  decide  if  red-skins  and  pale-faces  had  a 
separate  "  centre  of  creation,"  but  I  hold  that  our  original 
home  or  homes  were  in  the  woodlands  of  a  tropical  moun- 
tain-region. In  spite  of  the  infinite  diversity  of  our  do- 
mestic habits,  all  normally-constituted  human  beings,  I 
believe,  still  prefer  a  wooded  to  a  treeless  country,  a  dry  to 
a  swampy  soil,  and  a  temperature  which  on  the  whole  main- 
tains itself  above  the  freezing-point.  Conjointly,  these 
conditions  can  be  fulfilled  only  by  the  mountain-forests 
of  the  lower  tropics,  at  the  same  time  the  favorite  home  of 
the  palms,  figs,  mangos,  and  larger  Nuciferse,  in  itself  a 
significant  circumstance,  for  that  sweet  tree-fruits  were  our 
original  food  is  one  of  the  few  points  on  which  Moses  and 
Darwin  agree.  Our  Ur-vater,  whether  demi-gorilla  or 
demi-god,  was  probably  a  montanus ;  ancient  and  modern 
mountain-countries,  Syria,  Greece,  Italy,  Switzerland,  Scot- 
land, and  Circassia  (Virginia,  her  F.  F.'s  would  add),  have 
always  produced  a  superior  breed  of  men  ;  and  the  "garden 
planted  eastward  in  Eden,"  between  the  head-waters  of 
four  great  rivers,  can  hardly  have  been  a  lowland  plantation. 
For  railroads,  ship-canals,  and  machine-farming  purposes 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF  THE  SIERRA    NEGRA.  399 

tlie  prairie  States  offer  certainly  superior  advantages,  but  if 
our  manifold  sins  sliould  result  in  another  deluge,  and  an 
American  Noah  had  to  select  a  homestead  for  recommencing 
business  with  limited  resources,  his  first  choice  would  prob- 
ably be  the  highlands  of  Vera  Paz,  his  second  the  palm- 
region  of  Western  Tehuantepec  or  the  wliortleberry  and 
chestnut  woods  of  Northern  Alabama.  In  tiie  upper  val- 
leys of  the  Sierra  Negra  a  man  could  sleep  in  the  open  air 
the  year  round  under  a  cotnmon  plaid  :  according  to  all  ac- 
counts, the  variations  of  the  temperature  seem  almost  limited 
to  the  diurnal  changes,  its  annual  range  being  from  a 
monthly  average  of  eighty  degrees  in  June  to  sixty-five  in 
November. 

The  surface-rock,  a  trachytic  feldspar,  is  honeycombed 
with  clefts  and  caverns  where  a  homeless  squatter  could 
find  abundant  shelter  from  October  to  Christmas,  the  rainy 
season  being  here  confined  to  those  six  weeks.  Near  the 
pass  of  Los  Cumbres  I  saw  a  series  of  caves  that  seemed  to 
have  sheltered  benighted  wanderers, — prospecting  miners 
perhaps,  or  a  tropa  of  muleteers, — as  the  ground  around  there 
was  strewn  Avith  charred  sticks  and  corncobs.  I  entered 
one  of  them,  and  found  the  bottom  perfectly  dry,  with  no 
trace  of  moisture  on  the  walls,  but  a  profusion  of  gray 
and  reddish  lichens.  Even  near  the  watercourses  we  could 
take  short  cuts  through  tlie  woods  wherever  we  pleased  : 
they  were  as  clean  and  dry  as  an  Austrian  mountain-park 
artificially  drained  and  weeded.  And  yet  we  were  treading 
on  virgin  soil,  as  primitive  a  wilderness  as  any  between 
Peru  and  Oregon.  From  the  glens  on  our  left  rose  the 
true  primeval  forest  of  Central  America, — bulky  cancho- 
trees  with  smooth  bark  and  leatliery  foliage,  ligiunn-vitaj 
giants,  Torreya  pines,  yellow-wood,  tulij)-troes  with  large 
woollv  leaves, — all  crowding  each  other  on  the  sumiy  suk'^ 


400 


SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 


THE   HIGHLANDS   OF   VERA   PAZ. 


and  making  room  on  the  northern  slopes  for  the  hardier 
myrtles  and  laurel-trees.  The  Torreya  pines  swarmed  with 
a  small  and  short-tailed  variety  of  the  genus  Parus  (tomtits), 
and  on  the  same  trees  I  noticed  several  bird-spider  nets, 
one  of  thein  with  a  diameter  of  more  than  six  feet,  without 
including  the  long  brace-threads  that  ran  out  like  forestays 
to  the  extremity  of  the  surrounding  branches.  To  judge 
from  the  tenacity  of  their  filaments,  I  should  think  that 
they  would  make  a  good  substitute  for  coarse  silk.  I  had 
no  means  of  measuring  the  strength  of  the  single  threads, 
but  I  found  that  the  main  body  of  the  web  stopped  a 
number  of  wild  lemons  (about  the  size  of  a  pigeon-egg) 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS    OF  THE  SIERRA    NEGRA.  401 

M^hich  I  flung;  against  the  centre  with  all  my  might  and 
from  a  distance  of  hardly  fifteen  yards.  The  animal  itself 
has  a  peculiar  talent  for  keeping  out  of  sight :  J  remember 
that  I  once  rummaged  for  half  an  liour  around  a  leafless 
catalpa-bush  before  I  detected  the  eight-legged  weaver  that 
had  nearly  covered  the  tree  with  his  viscid  tissues. 

The  weather-saint  verified  his  augurium,  after  all.  The 
morning  was  rather  warm  for  the  midwinter  week,  and  the 
mayoral  unbuckled  a  little  gourd  from  his  hunting-pouch 
and  clambered  down  into  a  bushy  ravine  to  get  a  drink  of 
water.  "  Stop  a  moment,"  he  called  up  from  the  bottom  : 
"  there  must  be  a  wild-turkey  nest  down  here :  the  dog 
flushed  a  hen  from  almost  under  my  feet.  Do  you  hear 
her?     I  know  what  that  cackling  means." 

While  we  waited  my  Indian  took  a  seat  on  a  wayside 
rock,  but  suddenly  jumped  up  and  into  the  middle  of  the 
road,  "  Mira  !  mira  !  mi  capitan  :  que  animalote ! — Look  up 
there !  what  a  monster  of  a  beast !"  he  cried,  pointing  to  a 
big  caucho-tree  at  the  brink  of  the  ravine.  It  was  a  boa 
de polios  ("a  chicken-boa"),  winding  her  sluggish  length 
through  the  upper  branches  of  the  tree,  and  evidently  ill  at 
ease  at  seeing  herself  discovered.  I  cocked  my  gun,  and  she 
reared  as  if  she  contemplated  an  escapade  into  a  neighboring 
and  somewhat  higher  tree,  but  retracted  her  neck,  and, 
hugging  the  main  stem  of  the  caucho,  managed  to  conceal 
the  bulk  of  her  body  on  the  safe  side.  Her  head  was  still 
in  view,  but  oscillating  in  a  way  that  made  me  a  little  mis- 
trustful of  my  aim,  the  height  of  the  tree-top  being  about 
sixty  feet,  as  near  as  I  could  judge.  Having  no  ramrod- 
screw  handy,  I  put  a  load  of  buckshot  on  top  of  a  bullet- 
charge,  and,  allowing  for  the  elevation,  aimed  a  little  above 
her  eye,  which  seemed  to  watch  us  sideways,  still  rather 
doubtful  about  our  intentions.      When  the  smoke  cleared 


402  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

away  the  head  of  the  serpent  hung  back  as  if  her  neck  had 
been  crushed  by  an  axe-stroke,,  while  her  coils  contracted 
slowly  and  firmly.  But  in  tlie  next  moment  the  convul- 
sions commenced  :  independently,  as  it  seemed,  of  any  cere- 
bral promptings,  her  tail  laid  about  with  a  vigor  that  filled 
the  air  with  flying  twigs  and  leaves,  and,  suddenly  reversing 
its  coils,  the  body  slipped  off  and  came  plumping  to  the 
ground  amidst  the  uproarious  shouts  of  the  two  Indians. 
"  Esta  hembra,  y  llena  de  huevos  (it's  a  she,  and  full  of 
eggs),  I  bet,"  cried  the  peon.  "  Wait  till  I  get  Don  Ruan's 
hunting-knife.  I'll  lay  a  dollar  that  we  get  a  hatful  of 
eggs  out  of  her." 

He  was  actually  going  to  cut  her  up,  but  at  my  request 
the  mayoral  vetoed  the  disgusting  operation.  The  boa  was 
about  sixteen  feet  long,  and  very  prettily  speckled  with 
black  and  orange-brown  spots.  Her  neck  was  riddled  with 
shots  that  seemed  to  have  broken  the  vertebrae  in  several 
places,  but  when  we  finally  marched  our  Indians  ofi*  she 
was  still  writhing  in  the  grass,  and,  as  the  peon  assured  me, 
would  not  die  before  the  next  ghost-hour  (11.-12  p.m.), 
when  El  Demonio  would  call  around  for  her  soul. 

The  true  Boa  eoiistrietor  is  found  only  in  the  coast-forests  : 
in  the  mountains  the  name  is  applied  to  four  or  five  species 
of  smaller  tree-snakes,  and  even  to  a  pytiion  which  fre- 
quents the  canebrakes  of  the  upper  lakes.  Lynxes,  panthers, 
and  cinnamon  bears  are  occasionally  seen  in  the  alturas,  but 
they  are  getting  scarce  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  settle- 
ments :  the  enemies  and  rivals  of  man  cannot  maintain 
themselves  in  the  comparatively  open  forests  of  the  upper 
sierra.  Yet  with  one  exception  :  the  hoi-migas  (ants  and 
termites)  still  hold  their  own,  and  scorn  to  recognize  the 
sovereignty  of  the  self-styled  viceregent  of  the  Creator. 
The  "  strength-in-union"  principle  is  indeed  strikingly  illus- 


THE   VIRGIN    WOODS  OF  THE  SIERRA    NEGRA.  403 


BOA-SHOOT  I  NO. 


trated  by  the  achievements  of  those  loimiii'd  J>i!i|)iiti;ui.s 
who  dread  no  foe  in  Brobdingiiag,  and  prey  npon  man  as 
he  preys  upon  all  other  creature.^.  Ants  cannot  be  starved 
out,  for  they  can  sul>sist  on  decaying  organic  substances  of 


404  SUMMERLAyn   SKETCHES. 

anv  kiml,  vegetable  as  well  a^  animal ;  you  eannot  kill  them 
out,  lor  their  name  is  legion  of  legions  ;  you  eannot  ex- 
terminate them,  like  mosquitoes,  by  draining  the  lagoons, 
tor  they  will  thrive  on  dry  ground  as  well  as  in  the  swamps ; 
and  if  you  eut  the  trees  down  they  will  move  into  your 
house.  The  ant-bear  is  their  only  dangerous  foe,  but  his 
activity  can  only  clieck  over-multipli«itiou:  the  total 
number  of  all  species  of  ants  has  been  estimated  as  fifty 
thousand  times  larger  than  that  of  all  vertebrate  animals 
taken  together.  They  have  their  colonies  on  the  ground, 
underground,  and  in  the  rocks;  and  one  variety  of  termites, 
the  mafubejas,  or  bee-killer  ants,  build  their  nests  in  the 
tree-tops,  and  if  they  really  feed  exclusively  on  honey,  bee- 
culture  nmst  be  dittieult  in  Guatemala,  for  we  Siiw  mat'abeja- 
nests  which  I  at  tirst  mistook  for  monstrous  clusters  of 
mistletoe,  as  tliey  covered  all  the  upper  branches  of  good- 
sized  cauchos  and  magnolias. 

Our  path  had  gradually  turneil  from  southwest  to  south, 
and  about  2  P.M.  we  crossed  a  deep  glen,  the  upper  canon 
itf  the  Kio  Motagua,  opening  a  vista  toward  the  eastern 
valleys  through  a  wild  chaos  of  rocks  and  pint^foivsts. 
Clambering  up  the  southern  slope,  we  caught  a  glimpse  of 
a  wateriall  that  seemed  to  come  from  the  cloudland  of  the 
upper  sierra,  and,  after  tumbling  in  a  cascade  over  the  rocks 
of  the  first  forty  or  fifty  feet,  fell  straight  into  tlie  appar- 
ently "bottomless  abyss  below.  We  had  a  steep  ttscent  of 
sixteen  or  eiglueen  hundred  feet,  but  when  we  g\>t  up,  per- 
spiring as  if  just  out  of  a  Turkish  bath-house,  I  could  not 
resist  the  temptation  to  follow  the  brink  over  boulders  and 
brambly  clefts  till  I  got  a  front  view  of  the  falls.  It 
was  a  veritable  staub-bach, — a  large  creek  dissolved  into  a 
shower  of  spray  before  it  arrived  at  the  bintoui  of  the  cation. 
The  water  reached  the  main  stream  bv  a  number  of  rills 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF   THE  SIERRA    NEORA.     405 

between  loose  mossy  rocks,  but  the  descent  of  the  rain-cat- 
aract seemed  to  create  a  strong  current  of  air,  for  a  moun- 
tain-ash ten  or  twelve  yards  below  the  junction  swayed  as 
if  moved  by  a  fitful  gale,  though  the  trees  I'arther  down 
stood  rigidly  erect. 

About  four  miles  below  the  falls  our  trail  ai)i)rnachc'd 
the  caflon  once  more,  and  we  found  that  the  glen  had  widened 
into  a  broad  valley,  with  stretches  of  level  ground  on  both 
sides  of  the  river,  some  of  them  wide  enough  tor  a  little 
farm,  and  exposing  a  thick  stratum  of  black  mould  where 
the  river  had  washed  the  sward  from  its  banks.  All  this 
valley  was  included  in  the  reservation  :  we  were  still  four 
or  five  leagues  above  the  lower  boundary.  At  the  next 
turn  of  our  trail  the  forest  had  been  partly  cleared  :  we 
passed  a  stack  of  cordwood,  scattered  fence-rails,  and  other 
indications  of  a  neighboring  settlement.  Half  an  hour 
before  we  had  heard  a  cow-bell,  and  now  heard  it  again 
only  a  short  distance  ahead. 

''  That's  Gil  Mateo's  ranch,"  said  the  mayoral.  "  1  b,- 
lieve  I  heard  his  dogs  too,  so  I  hope  we  shall  find  him  at 
home." 

"  Does  he  know  you  ?" 

"  Yes  :  I  stopped  here  several  times.  He's  a  trasgrcsor^^ 
(trespasser,  wild  squatter),  "and  a  rough  sort  of  a  customer, 
but  I  would  advise  your  countrymen  to  keep  on  his  good 
side  :  he'll  not  bother  them,  I  guess,  and  can  be  right  use- 
ful if  he  chooses.  By  birth  he  is  a  Catalan,  and  has  bi-en 
in  California  during  the  gold  years,  but  he's  pretty  well 
acquainted  in  this  neighborhood, — has  lived  here  ten  or 
twelve  years,  I  believe." 

"  Listen  !  there's  somebody  coming,"  said  the  peon. 

Two  boys  galloped  across  the  road,  but  drew  rein  at  the 
halloo  of  the  mayoral,  and  eyed  us  with  evident  surprise. 

2i; 


406  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

They  looked  like  twin-brothers,  eleven  or  twelve  years  of 
age,  fair  specimens  of  the  muchacho  gachupin, — acclimatized 
and  Indianized  yonng  Spaniards.  One  was  mounted  on  a 
stout  donkey,  the  other  on  an  equally  thick-headed  sierra 
pony. 

"  Why,  Pablito !  don't  you  know  me  ?"  the  mayoral 
called  out. 

Pablito  stared. 

"  Oh,  I  know  him  now,"  cried  his  brother.  "  Yes,  that's 
Don  Ruan :  I  recognized  him  as  soon  as  I  saw  his  big 
dog." 

"  Glad  to  meet  you,  boys,"  said  the  mayoral,  after  a 
general  handshaking  :  "  is  your  father  at  home  ?" 

"  He  was  home  for  dinner,"  said  Pablito,  "  and  he  isn't 
very  far  off  now.  He's  boiling  maple-sugar  down  the  river, 
about  three  miles  from  our  place :  you  can  see  the  smoke 
from  our  porch.  I  am  sorry  we  didn't  know  you  were 
coming,  but  we'll  try  to  get  back  as  quick  as  possible." 

"  Where  are  you  going,  boys  ?" 

"  Going  to  Seiior  Cohan's  place  to  borrow  a  bear-trap." 

"  Sefior  Coban  in  Val  Secco  ?  Wouldn't  this  road  be  the 
shorter  way  ?" 

"  Yes,  I  know,"  said  Pablito,  "  but  the  ford  is  very  bad, 
my  father  says ;  so  we  are  going  to  take  the  old  Indian  trail 
over  the  Torreya  gap,  if  we  can  find  it.  But  come  on,  her- 
manito,  or  we  sha'n't  get  back  before  midnight." 

"Yes,  we  want  to  be  back  in  time  for  the  dog-fight," 
laughed  his  brother ;  "  don't  forget  what  you  promised  us, 
senor.     Adios  meanwhile." 

They  wheeled  round  and  galloped  aw^ay  with  merry  cheers 
into  the  thick  of  the  pathless  forest. 

"  Poor  devils  !"  said  the  mayoral,  "  they  have  never  had 
shoes  on  their  feet  since  their  father  made  this  clearing;. 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF   THE  SIERRA    NEGRA.     407 

In  your  native  country  they  wouldn't  take  them  to  l)e  white 
men's  children,  would  they,  Don  Felix?" 

I  said  nothing.  I  believe  I  envied  them.  Thev  were 
both  unkempt,  barefoot,  and  almost  barelegged,  and  had 
perhaps  never  seen  the  inside  of  a  school-house ;  but,  trans- 
planted to  an  Illinois  country  town,  with  substantial  farms, 
railroad  ftieilities,  and  Cin-istian  colleges,  those  same  boys 
would  have  pined  away  with  homesickness  and  emuii.  Dull 
times — in  the  domestic  ratlier  than  a  financial  sense — drive 
thousands  of  our  country  boys  from  their  homes  to  the 
wilds  of  the  Great  West  or  to  the  more  bewildering  wilder- 
ness of  a  great  city :  they  seek  circenses  more  than  panes, 
fun  rather  than  fortune.  Our  young  metropolitans  satisfy 
that  craving  after  a  fashion  of  their  own,  but  it  is  cheaper 
and  out-and-out  safer  to  let  your  boys  explore  the  mysteries 
of  the  wildest  sierra  than  the  myaUres  de  Paris. 

"  We  can  save  ourselves  the  roundabout  way,"  said  Don 
Ruan.  "  I  can  see  the  smoke  now.  I  guess  I  know  where 
he  is  :  there  is  a  maple-grove  close  to  the  cafion,  about  three 
miles  from  here." 

"  He  is  a  Spaniard,  you  say  :  is  he  an  intelligent  fellow?" 

"  His  manners  are  a  little  off  color,  but  he  can  give  you 
a  deal  of  useful  information  :  he  has  tried  all  kinds  of  gar- 
dening on  a  small  scale,  and  is  likely  to  know  what  crops 
pay  best.  And  it's  worth  while  knowing  how  he  has  man- 
aged to  hold  his  ground  against  the  Guachinos"  (the  hostik^ 
Indians  of  the  Honduras  border).  "If  a  singk'  family 
could  do  that,  a  colony  of  old  frontiersmen  with  rifles  and 
pistols  needn't  have  any  apj)rehensions  on  that  account." 

We  left  the  path,  and  picked  our  way  tiirough  tiie  woocfs 
by  guess  and  instinct  till  we  got  back  to  the  bank  of  the 
river-valley.  Between  the  pines  and  arbor-vitjes  we  saw 
a  good  many  maple-trees,  witii  leaves  that  looked  a  little 


408  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

smaller  than  those  of  the  genuine  "  bird's-eye  maple,"  but 
resembling  the  Acer  saccharinum  in  their  general  appear- 
ance. Most  of  the  larger  trees  had  been  tapped,  and  the 
little  log  troughs  and  elderwood  siphons  at  the  "  sugar- 
camp"  showed  that  Don  Mateo  had  learned  the  business  in 
the  United  States.  The  smoke  rose  from  a  crevice  in  the 
solid  rock,  where  a  copper  kettle  had  been  suspended  over 
a  smouldering  wood-fire.  Heaps  of  billets  and  kindling- 
wood  lay  around,  and  near  one  of  the  larger  piles  an  axe 
and  a  hat,  but  where  was  Don  Mateo  himself? 

"  Just  look  at  that  Indian  casucha  he  has  built !"  laughed 
the  mayoral.  "  A  half-savage,  isn't  he  ?  Yes,  he  is  in  there, 
sure  enough,  just  like  a  bear  in  his  winter-quarters.  Step 
over  here,  will  you?" 

At  the  very  brink  of  the  caiion  a  fallen  pine-tree  had 
formed  a  natural  arbor,  and  by  the  simple  process  of  lopping 
the  lower  branches  and  interlacing  them  with  those  on  top 
the  casucha  had  been  made  weather-tight,  and  commodious 
enough  for  half  a  dozen  recumbent  lodgers.  The  floor  was 
covered  with  a  litter  of  chips  and  pine-needles,  and  in  this 
litter  Don  Mateo  lay  on  his  back, — a  half-savage,  indeed. 
His  face,  hands,  and  naked  arms  were  smeared  with  a  mix- 
ture of  soot  and  maple-honey,  and  the  color  of  his  old 
leather  breeches  resembled  that  of  his  naked  feet.  He 
was  napping,  or  trying  to. 

The  mayoral  handed  me  his  gun,  clambered  over  a 
pile  of  kindling-wood,  and  hailed  him  :  "  Buenas  tardes, 
Don  Gil." 

The  don  turned  on  his  elbow,  stared  at  his  visitors  and 
then  at  each  one  of  us  separately,  before  he  spoke  a  word. 
"  Halloo  !  come  in,"  said  he  at  last. 

"  Is  this  your  private  country-seat  ?"  asked  the  mayoral. 

Another  pause.    "  I  do  not  know  if  it  is  my  own  or  not," 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS  OF  THE  SIERRA   NEGRA.     409 

said  the  squatter.  "  I  guess  those  men  are  the  new  settlers 
you  told  me  about,  the  colonists  who  are  going  to  kick  me 
out  ?" 


"Who  said  so?" 
replied  Don  Ruan. 
"This  gentleman  here 
is  their  agent,  and  he 
tells  me  they  will 
tliank  God  for  having 
one  white  man  for  their  neighi)or. 
There  are  smart  carpenters  among  them,  Don  Gil,  and  they 
will  helj)  you  to  fix  your  house  up  romfortahly." 

"  I'm  sure  I  won't  ask  them  to  bother  themselves  on  my 


410  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

account,"  said  the  squatter :  "  I  can  do  my  own  housebuild- 
ing and  housekeeping." 

"  Yes,  it  seems  so,"  said  I,  "  and  Ave  want  you  to  show 
us  how  to  do  it,  Don  Mateo.  There  are  eighteen  families 
of  them,  and  we  will  make  it  worth  while  for  you  to  help 
us.  We  want  to  put  up  some  temporary  shelter-places 
before  the  beginning  of  the  rainy  season.  You  may  find 
some  old  chums  among  them  if  you  have  been  in  Cali- 
fornia," I  added. 

He  looked  up  and  eyed  me  in  a  curious  way :  "  Been  in 
the  Altas  f  (Upper  California.)  "  How  are  times  there 
now  ?" 

"All  settled  up,  amigo, — full  of  Chinamen  and  land- 
speculators  :  no  chance  there  now  for  an  independent  man. 
You  picked  out  a  much  better  country.  But  let  me  ask 
you  one  question  :  How  did  you  contrive  to  manage  the 
Indians?  That's  more  than  the  government  troops  can 
do." 

"  God  help  your  colonists  if  they  are  going  to  rely  on 
the  government  troops !"  said  the  Catalan.  "  Look  here, 
sir,"  taking  up  an  old  rifle  :  "that's  what  I  rely  upon." 

"  Halloo  !  let  me  see.  Why,  that's  a  genuine  American 
squirrel-gun  :  what  will  you  take  for  it?" 

"  More  than  you  would  like  to  pay,  captain  :  that  gun  is 
meat  and  bread  to  me.  Look  over  there,"  said  he,  point- 
ing to  the  opposite  bank  of  the  valley :  "  do  you  see  that 
ravine  across  the  river  ?  I  killed  a  buck  there  yesterday 
morning,  and  right  from  where  I  stand  now.  Could  you 
do  that  with  such  shooting-machines  as  you  can  buy  in  this 
part  of  the  world?" 

"  No :  you  are  right.  Is  there  much  game  in  this  neigh- 
borhood ?" 

"  Plenty  of  grouse,  and  some  peccaris  farther  down.    Deer 


THE    VIRGIN   WOODS   OF  THE  SIERRA    NEGRA.     411 

are  getting  scarce,  but  that's  just  what  I  was  talking  al)()Ut : 
if  a  man  can  rely  on  his  gun,  he  needn't  make  a  hog  of 
himself  and  shoot  a  hen-grouse  on  her  nest  or  a  peccarl-sow 
with  pigs,  as  our  Indians  do.  I  caught  one  of  them  cutting 
spare-ribs  out  of  a  peccari  with  ten  unborn  pigs  last  month. 
Well,  sir,  I  would  have  given  his  own  pork  a  dressing  if  I 
could  have  run  him  down.  On  the  marquis  of  Figuera's 
estate  in  my  native  country  they  would  have  shot  such  a 
fellow  like  a  mad  wolf.  Just  let  me  know  if  your  colonists 
want  a  gamekeeper :  I'm  their  man.  I  mean,  if  they  are 
going  to  back  me  up  if  I  should  haj)pen  to  cripple  a  pot- 
hunter or  two." 

Don  Mateo  described  the  climate  as  very  equable :  he 
had  never  seen  snow  in  the  lower  sierra,  and  the  summer 
months  were  rarely  disagreeably  warm.  Two  crops  of  corn 
and  wheat  and  perennial  string-beans  could  be  raised  in 
the  river  bottoms,  and  the  sunny  sides  would  make  pro- 
miscuous orchards,  to  judge  from  the  great  number  of  sjion- 
taneous  tree-fruits.  Viticulture  might  be  very  successful, 
he  believed,  but  good  wine  would  hardly  find  a  market  in 
Guatemala ;  and  he  advised  me  strongly  to  survey  a  wagon- 
road  to  the  hoea  (Port  Isabel),  where  several  foreign  traders 
would  be  glad  to  take  commissions  at  liberal  rates. 

We  decided  to  bivouac  at  the  sugar-camp  and  continue 
our  journey  at  daybreak  to  Macultepec,  where  the  Port 
Isabel  road  could  be  reached  by  a  rope-ferry  over  the  Rio 
Motagua. 

"We  are  rather  short  of  provisions,"  said  the  Catalan, 
"but  I  will  send  you  all  we  can  spare:  you  can  pay  the 
boy  or  settle  after  you  come  back.  Please  don't  let  the 
fire  go  out.  Oh,  I  nearly  forgot,"  said  he  :  "  you  will  have 
some  visitors  to-night.  There  is  a  camp  of  Indian  turtle- 
hunters  about  three   miles  from  here,  and   they  come  up 


412  SUMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

every  night  to  get  the  sugar-scrapings :  it  saves  me  the 
trouble  of  cleaning  the  kettle  myself." 

After  supper  we  crawled  into  the  casucha,  and  slept  peace- 
fully till  about  an  hour  after  midnight,  when  I  was  aAvakened 
by  the  low  growling  of  the  dog  at  my  neighbor's  feet. 

"  What's  up?"  said  the  mayoral. — "  Oh,  I  see,"  he  whis- 
pered: "Yes,  here  are  the  Indians, — licking  the  treacle  out 
of  Mateo's  kettle,  I  bet.  Listen !  What  in  the  name  of 
reason  are  they  doing?     Singing,  praying,  or  what?" 

I  raised  my  head,  and  thought  I  saw  six  or  eight  of  them 
squatting  in  a  circle  around  the  sugar-kettle,  but  the  flicker- 
ing fire  gradually  resolved  all  these  shapes  into  piles  of 
chips  and  firewood, — all  but  one :  right  in  front  of  the  kettle 
crouched  an  old  hag,  a  solitary  old  squaw,  warming  her 
bony  liands  over  the  embers  and  crooning  a  melody  that 
had  perhaps  been  composed  in  a  tent-village  of  the  Mon- 
golian steppes. 

I  made  the  mayoral  get  up  and  take  a  look  at  the  appa- 
rition. "  She's  the  wigwam-cook,  I  guess,  belonging  to  a 
tribe  of  wandering  Guachinos,"  said  he.  "  I  shouldn't 
wonder  if  Don  Gil  lets  them  have  something  besides  scrap- 
ings :  they  are  very  apt  to  blackmail  a  solitary  farmer,  like 
our  Mexican  bandits,  who  go  around  begging  with  a  cocked 
musketoon  in  their  fist." 

"  The  Guachinos  have  no  fire-arms,  have  they  ?" 

"  No,  but  they  manage  to  get  even  with  their  enemies 
somehow  or  other.  In  Napaluco  they  nearly  killed  the 
lieutenant  of  the  Mexican  garrison  with  poisoned  tobacco. 
They  are  as  vindictive  as  gypsies, — hold  human  life  very 
cheap,  and  commit  murder  or  suicide  on  the  slightest  pro- 
vocation. Our  soldiers  rather  admire  them  for  it,  being 
themselves  such  arrant  cowards  that  they  respect  courage 
in  any  form." 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS  OF   THE  SIERRA   NEORA.     413 

"  The  Guachinos  are  mostly  heathens,  I  suppose  ?" 
"Yes,  but  baptism  doesn't  tame  them  very  much.  One 
of  my  neighbors  up  in  Chiapas  had  a  baptized  Guachino 
boy  on  his  hacienda  who  threatened  to  commit  homicide  or 
suicide  whenever  they  put  him  to  any  hard  work  or  crossed 
him  in  one  of  his  peculiar  whims.  They  had  him  about 
two  years,  when  he  took  it  into  his  head  to  make  retl-hot 
love  to  the  haciendado's  daughter,  who  was  too  good-natured 
or  too  much  of  a  coquette  to  cut  his  acquaintance  in  an  off- 
hand way  till  her  father  sent  for  the  priest,  the  only  person 
who  had  any  influence  on  the  young  demon.  They  were 
going  to  find  him  a  good  place  in  Soconusco,  in  order  to 
get  him  out  of  the  way.  The  priest  told  him  that  they 
would  have  kicked  him  out  of  the  hacienda  without  any 
ceremony  if  he  hadn't  been  a  convert,  and  then,  appealing 
to  the  fellow's  common  sense,  told  him  that  his  suit  was 
perfectly  hopeless,  and  that  he  would  find  a  good  home  in 
Soconusco,  where  kind  friends  and  a  new  occupation  Avoukl 
by  and  by  cure  him  of  his  passion.  The  boy  made  no 
reply,  but  hung  his  head.  'Am  I  not  right?' asked  the 
priest  when  they  parted.  '  Yes,'  says  Master  Guachino, 
'  but  me  sanare  mas  pronto — I  shall  prefer  a  shorter  cure.' 
The  next  morniug  they  found  the  body  of  their  late  con- 
vert in  the  woodshed  of  the  sugar-mill." 

We  decamped  in  the  twilight  of  a  cloudless  moruing, 
went  a  mile  to  the  right  to  get  clear  of  the  manifold  wind- 
ings of  the  Motagua,  and  then  steered  due  east  over  a  de- 
scending plateau  of  park-like  groves  and  mountain-mead- 
ows. The  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierra  Ncgra  being  exiiosc<l 
to  the  Atlantic  trade-winds,  the  vegetation  absorbs  moisture 
enough  from  the  atmosphere  to  j>reserve  all  its  freshness 
in  the  rainless  season.  The  grass  was  mixed  with  flowering 
stone-clover  and  bindweed   {Convolvulm  tamus),  and  alive 


414  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

with  chirping  grasshoppers,  busy  bumblebees  and  still  busier 
ichneumou-wasps,  the  murderous  enemy  of  all  tropical  cat- 
erpillars. The  conifers  here  alternate  with  catalpas  and 
wild  cliina-trees,  beeches  and  walnuts,  and  in  the  lower 
valleys  the  variety  of  nut-bearing  trees  is  almost  infinite. 
The  farmers  of  Vera  Paz  gather  the  mast  of  a  small  kind 
of  wild  chestnut,  grind  it  and  bake  it  into  bread  and  cakes 
of  a  peculiar  pleasing  flavor,  resembling  a  certain  sort  of 
almond  pastry.  The  slopes  are  intersected  by  numerous 
ravines,  running  mostly  parallel  with  the  Motagua  Valley, 
and  occasionally  widening  into  grassy  dells  where  a  Swiss 
goatherd  could  forget  his  Alpenland,  Here  flourish  the 
mezquite  and  the  madroila  or  strawberry-tree  of  the  South- 
ern Cordilleras,  and  amidst  broom-corn  and  rosemary  the 
wild  pineapple  ripens  its  sweet-scented  fruit.  Combined 
with  the  atmosphere  of  this  aromatic  herbage,  a  high  tem- 
perature can  be  not  only  tolerable,  but  strangely  agreeable  : 
in  a  flowery  glen  where  we  rested  for  the  benefit  of  our 
carriers  my  pocket-thermometer  indicated  92°  Fahrenheit, 
and  the  sun  stood  almost  directly  overhead,  but  its  glow 
felt  so  pleasant  that  I  began  to  comprehend  how  the  Roman 
e[)icureans  could  build  special  solaria — glass-covered  cot- 
tages— for  the  purpose  of  bathing  in  sunshine. 

During  the  whole  forenoon  we  enjoyed  the  panorama  of 
the  snow-capped  sierras  of  Chiapas  and  Tabasco,  standing 
like  turreted  cloud-castles  on  the  northern  horizon,  till  we 
reached  the  depths  of  the  Val  de  Motagua,  where  the  view 
and  the  noonday  sun  were  hidden  by  the  canopy  of  the  an- 
cient pine-woods  which  had  accompanied  the  river  from  its 
source  in  the  rocks  of  the  alturas.  Under  many  of  the  larger 
trees  the  ground  was  covered  with  gnaAved  fir-cones,  and 
now  and  then  we  caught  sight  of  a  squirrel-monkey  or  two 
dodging  behind  the  stems  after  the  fashion  of  the  Northern 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF  THE  SIERRA   NEGRA.     415 

fox-squirrel.  Tlie  American  squirrel-monkey  {Jacchiis 
seiu7'eus)  forms  the  connecting  link  between  the  rodents  and 
quadrumana :  its  hands  terminate  in  claws  instead  of  blunt- 
nailed  fingers,  and  its  food  consists  chiefly  of  nuts  and  oily 
seeds,  but  its  movements  and  general  appearance  suggest  a 
close  relationshi])  with  the  tamarin  and  other  small  Ameri- 
can monkeys.  It  generally  has  two  young  ones  at  a  time, 
— strange,  fluffy  little  kittens,  that  cling  to  their  mother 
without  hindering  her  movements  in  the  least  degree,  and 
during  a  rapid  flight  clasp  her  neck  in  a  way  that  seems  to 
incorporate  the  three  bodies  into  one. 

When  we  came  once  more  in  sight  of  the  Rio  IMotagua 
we  found  that  the  mountain-torrent  had  widened  into  a 
respectable  river,  bordered  with  ground-palms,  fan-shaped 
canes,  and  gigantic  mulberry-trees  whose  lower  branches 
were  festooned  with  long  tresses  of  maidenhair  (^rZ/aji^uw) 
dangling  from  projecting  limbs  or  trailing  in  the  water  like 
fish-nets.  We  reached  the  rope-ferry  at  the  same  time  with 
a  company  of  pantaneros  (literally,  "  moormen"),  gum- 
gatherers,  and  logwood-cutters,  who  had  been  at  work  in 
the  river-swamps,  and  were  now  on  their  route  to  Port 
Isabel  and  New  Orleans.  Since  the  great  dyewood  forests 
of  Campeciie  have  been  depleted  these  men,  like  our  Cal- 
ifornia gold-hunters  after  the  exhaustion  of  the  placer- 
mines,  wander  about  in  troops,  generally  under  the  auspices 
of  a  patron  or  speculator,  who  makes  it  his  business  to 
ferret  out  bonanzas  of  gum-  and  logwood-trees,  and  engages 
a  gang  of  pantaneros  either  at  fixed  wages  or  with  the 
promise  of  a  tantihne  of  the  uncertiiin  profits.  In  dull 
seasons  the  patron  boards  his  men  on  credit,  generally  in 
Vera  Cruz  or  New  Orleans,  or  some  other  Gulf-port  with 
reo-ular  steamboat  facilities,  in  order  to  tackle  the  next 
bonanza  without  loss  of  time.     As  a  matter  of  course,  the 


416  SVMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

average  pantanero  is  in  a  chronic  state  of  indebtedness ;  but 
quien  sahe  f  A  lucky  season  and  a  fair  dividend  may  fill 
his  pockets,  and  with  health,  hope,  and  sraoking-tobacco 
he  is  the  merriest  muchacho  in  Spanish  America.  Every 
man  of  this  party  was  a  walking  curiosity-shop,  loaded 
with  Indian  trinkets,  dried  humming-birds,  living  mon- 
keys, etc.,  for  the  New  Orleans  market,  and  besides  their 
spades  and  axes  most  of  them  carried  heavy  Mexican  mus- 
ketoons.  Their  commissariat  was  somewhat  reduced,  but 
their  leader  intended  to  replenish  their  provender-bags  at 
the  Zapateria,  a  wayside  tavern  about  a  league  ahead,  where 
he  advised  us  to  put  up  for  the  night. 

The  Zapateria,  or  cobbler-shop — so  called  from  a  subsid- 
iary trade  of  the  first  proprietor — proved  to  be  a  stage-coach 
depot,  at  a  triple  cross-road,  and,  witii  its  outbuildings  and 
enclosed  corrals,  flanked  the  first  good-looking  farm  we  had 
seen  since  our  departure  from  Chiapas.  The  river  was  con- 
veniently near,  and  at  the  time  of  our  arrival  the  entire 
male  population  of  the  farm  seemed  to  be  engaged  in  water- 
ing cattle  and  horses.  Leoncito,  our  four-legged  avant- 
courier,  entered  the  open  gate  without  ceremony,  but  came 
flying  back,  followed  by  a  chorus  of  dog-voices  that  would 
have  done  credit  to  the  three-headed  gatekeeper  of  Tartarus. 
We  clubbed  our  guns,  expecting  a  disastrous  sally,  but  no- 
body came:  the  dogs  were  chained  up  in  the  horse-stable, 
— three  Aragon  wolf-dogs,  tlie  most  ferocious  brutes  that 
ever  claimed  descent  from  the  genus  Canis.  When  we 
passed  their  den  they  crouched  down  like  jaguars,  and  then 
leaped  forward  with  a  fury  that  made  the  timbers  of  the 
stable  creak,  uttering  yells  that  differed  from  the  bark  of  a 
common  dog  as  the  bellowing  of  a  sea-lion  differs  from  the 
yelp  of  the  seal. 

The  posadero  was  in  luck  that  night.    The  evening  stage 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF   THE  SIERRA   NEGRA.     417 

brought  two  merchants  from  Guatemala  City  who  were 
going  to  a  horse-foir  in  Maculteiwe,  and  before  dark  the 
Port  Isabel  party  was  reinforced  by  a  detachment  of  sol- 
diers, who  had  been  on  special  duty  on  the  Indian  frontier 
and  were  now  returning  to  their  barracks  at  the  head  of 
the  boca.  As  first-comers,  we  had  our  pick  among  the 
various  sleeping  accommodations,  but  after  an  ocular  and 
olfactory  examination  of  the  interior  dormitories  I  preferred 
a  couch  on  the  open  porch,  to  the  glad  surprise  of  the  mer- 
chants, who  dreaded  the  "  night-chill"  with  that  meteoro- 
logical fastidiousness  of  the  New  Spaniard  which  is  only 
equalled  by  his  entomological  indifference. 

They  alluded  in  vague  terms  to  the  ubiquity  of  tiie  third 
Egyptian  plague  when  I  met  them  at  breakfast  the  next 
morning,  but  seemed  to  regret  their  choice  chielly  on  ac- 
count of  having  missed  a  rare  piece  of  fun. 

In  that  half-hour  of  cool  ethereal  twilight  which  precedes 
a  tropical  sunrise  I  was  awakened  by  a  st)und  of  hurried 
footsteps  on  the  paved  corral,  and,  looking  up,  saw  a  num- 
ber of  half-dressed  men  running  in  the  direction  of  the 
stable  at  the  top  of  their  speed.  "What's  up?"  I  asked 
my  neighbor,  who  seemed  to  have  been  awake  for  some 
time, — "a  horse  stolen?" 

"No,  no:  uii  iropo  de  monos  vastecos — a  troop  of  cebon- 
monkeys — stealing  maize,"  he  replied.  "  One  of  the  sol- 
diers on  his  way  to  the  spring  has  spied  them  in  the  big 
cornfield,  and  the  proprietor  is  going  to  unchain  hi-  hound." 

A\'hile  he  spoke  hound,  master,  and  soldiers  had  passed 
us  in  silent  haste,  and,  snatching  up  my  shot-gun,  I  left 
my  baggage  in  charge  of  the  Indian  and  I'an  (tui  in  my 
stocking-feet. 

Before  we  reached  the  gate  the  monos  had  taken  the 
alarm,  and  on  a  level  field  a  cebou-monkey  can  get  over  the 


41  g  SVMMERLAND  SKETCHES. 

ground  at  a  lively  rate  :  but  the  distance  to  the  high  timber 
was  nearly  a  mile,  and,  once  started  upon  the  fresh  scent, 
the  Aragon  wehr-wolf  gained  upon  them  so  rapidly  that 
even  bets  were  offered  upon  the  chance  of  any  of  them  es- 
caping with  their  lives,  when  one  unlucky  mona  made  a 
scapegoat  of  herself  by  jumping  upon  a  tree-stump  hardly 
eight  feet  high  and  in  full  sight  of  the  hound.  He  saw 
her,  and  at  once  changed  his  course  to  the  left  oblique,  un- 
conscious, as  it  seemed,  of  having  a  larger  number  quite  as 
much  at  his  mercy. 

When  he  headed  for  the  stump  the  consternation  of  the 
mona  was  both  ludicrous  and  pitiful :  she  jumped  backward 
and  forward,  looked  up  and  down  and  sideways  with  in- 
describable grimaces  in  her  efforts  to  devise  ways  and  means 
of  escape,  clutched  her  head  as  if  to  stimulate  her  five 
wits  into  a  quicker  sokition  of  the  problem,  and  finally 
clasped  the  stump  tightly,  while  the  recollection  of  her  sins 
seemed  to  affect  her  like  a  sudden  cathartic ;  but  in  the  next 
moment  Nemesis  overtook  her  in  the  form  of  a  flying 
hound.  Cerberus  missed  his  grip,  but,  bearing  her  down 
by  the  impetus  of  his  leap,  caught  her  almost  before  she 
reached  the  ground,  and  a  stifled  screech  announced  the 
consummation  of  the  vicarious  atonement. 

The  distance  from  the  cross-roads  to  Port  Isabel  is  about 
twenty  miles.  Going  east  and  steadily  down-hill,  Ave  had 
a  quick  trip,  still  further  shortened  by  the  infectious  mer- 
riment of  our  travelling-companions.  On  the  railroad 
from  Vera  Cruz  to  the  city  of  Mexico  the  smoking-car  is  at 
the  same  time  the  singing-  and  whooping-car,  for  neither 
the  presence  of  ladies  nor  the  fear  of  immediate  ejection 
will  keep  the  natives  quiet  while  the  train  is  in  motion. 
They  enjoy  peregrination  as  we  do  our  fireside  comforts : 
only  in  the  Germanic  languages  "  at  home"  and  "  at  ease'* 


THE   VIRGIN    WOODS   OF   THE  SIERRA  NEGRA.     419 


are  synonymous  terms. 
The  xVnglo-Saxon,  thougli  a 
great  emigrant,  is  at  heart 
'  domestic,  while  the  Spaniard 
is  by  nature  excursive.  The  Eng- 
lishman, one  might  say,  emigrates 
for  the  purpose  of  reaching  a  new 
home, — the  Spaniard,  in  order  to 
get  away  from  liis  old  one. 
The  programme  of  our  musical  entertainment  included 
Indian  war-songs,  sacred  and  national  hymns,  medieval 
ballads,  and  erotic  impromptus  :  an  Ainerican  farmer  would 
have  taken  us  for  a  gang  of  migratory  mhistrels.  The  only 
quiet  man  in  the  party  was  the  second  sergeant,  a  big, 
strapping  fellow  with  a  deep  bass  voice,  who  contented 
himself  with  keeping  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  while  the 
gait  of  the  sanjento  primero  was  somewhat  the  worse  for 
his  frequent  calls  at  the  wayside  pulque-shops. 

The  silent   philosopher    turned   out   to   be  a   native  of 
Temesvar  in  Southern  Hungary,  who  had  conu'  over  with 


{ 


420  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Maximilian  and  served  in  the  third  artillery  of  the  imperial 
regulars  till  his  battery  was  captured  at  Oaxaca,  where  they 
kept  him  at  work  in  the  public  streets  on  two  pounds  of 
corn  bread  and  four  ounces  of  bacon  a  day.  After  the  res- 
toration he  donned  the  bottle-green  uniform  of  the  repub- 
lican army,  gradually  advanced  to  his  present  rank,  and 
was  now  "as  well  off  as  any  Austrian  chaplain,"  he  assured 
me, — "four  dollars  a  week,  nothing  to  do  and  plenty  to 
eat," — a  man  who  had  solved  the  problem  of  life  to  his 
satisfaction. 

"  What  takes  you  to  Port  Isabel  ?"  I  asked  ;  "  going  to 
wait  for  a  Mexican  steamer  ?" 

"  No,  we  are  stationed  there,"  he  said  :  "  since  the  Yuca- 
tan compromise  our  government  keeps  a  garrison  at  the 
boca." 

The  northeastern  corner  of  Guatemala  is  now  under  the 
protectorate  of  the  Mexican  government,  after  having  for 
twenty  years  been  the  scene  of  an  Indian  and  international 
rough-and-tumble  fight  which  made  it  a  most  unprofitable 
possession  to  the  smaller  republic.  The  hostile  Indians, 
like  our  Comanches  and  Apaches,  used  to  escape  across  the 
convenient  frontier  whenever  their  depredations  had  started 
the  government  troops  on  their  trail,  and  by  the  treaty  of 
1862,  Port  Isabel  was  to  be  free  to  a  certain  class  of  Mex- 
ican vessels,  with  the  proviso  that  the  Mexican  government 
should  furnish  auxiliary  troops  whenever  the  advance  of 
the  hostiles  threatened  the  safety  of  the  harbor.  The  result 
was  a  tragedy  of  errors,  a  muddle  of  protests  and  counter- 
protests,  marches  and  countermarches,  till  1869,  when  the 
governor  of  Yucatan  offered  to  garrison  and  improve  Port 
Isabel  at  the  expense  of  his  State  on  condition  that  the 
privileges  of  the  harbor  should  be  extended  to  Mexican 
vessels  of  all  classes.     The  Guatemalan  government  was 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS  OF  THE  SIERRA  NEGRA.  421 


PORT   ISABEL. 


sensible  enough  to  accept  the  compromise,  and  has  ever 
since  continued  to  derive  a  handsome  revenue  from  a  sea- 
port whose  protection  and  repairs  have  not  cost  it  a  cent 
for  the  last  ten  years. 

Port  Isabel  (Itzabal  or  Atzabal  the  Caribbeans  called 
the  ruins  of  an  ancient  city  on  this  coast)  will  never  be  of 
much  importance  as  a  commercial  seaport,  on  account  of 
the  craggy  reef  that  almost  closes  the  iiarbor  at  ebb-tido, 
but  the  seaward  prospect  of  its  surroundings  repeats  on  the 
o-randest  scale  the  peculiar  scenic  charms  of  Perth  and 
Trieste,  the  town  being  situated  at  the  head  of  the  Bay  of 

27 


422  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

Honduras,  which,  seen  from  afar,  resembles  a  mighty  river 
with  terraced  shores  and  mountainous  headlands. 

How  is  it  that  distances  are  so  deceptive  in  the  atmosphere 
of  the  Spanish  Main  and  the  southern  Gulf  coast?  Stand- 
ing on  the  brink  of  the  steep  plateau  west  of  Port  Isabel, 
the  buildings  of  Fort  Gonzales,  viewed  across  a  valley  of 
ten  miles  in  diameter,  can  be  distinguished  as  plainly  as  the 
cottages  and  garden-walls  at  your  feet :  the  officers'  quarters 
with  their  row  of  shade-trees,  the  boat-house,  the  scarps 
and  counterscarps  of  the  bastion,  are  all  crowded  together 
on  the  tip  of  a  promontory,  but  as  sharply  outlined  as  the 
picture  in  the  spectrum  of  a  telescope.  The  white  walls 
reflect  their  light  without  glittering ;  the  shades  are  dark, 
but  not  obscure;  the  atmosphere  itself  seems  to  act  like  a 
periscopic  lens,  unless  its  absolute  freedom  from  smoke  and 
dust  should  account  for  its  wonderful  transparency.  That 
is  what  our  neighbors  mean  when  they  speak  of  "  el  sol  de 
Mexico," — the  Mexican  sun, — whose  glories  are  reserved 
for  their  favored  country,  which  vouchsafes  such  perennial 
summers  to  no  other  land,  and  whose  light  lingers  on  their 
sierras  after  it  has  retreated  in  disgust  from  the  foggy 
swamps  of  the  hyperboreans.  Just  now  it  gilded  the  crests 
of  the  South  Mexican  Alps,  which  tower  above  all  the 
highlands  of  Honduras  and  Vera  Paz. 

The  ruins  of  Itzabal  are  about  six  miles  northeast  of  the 
seaport,  but  the  modern  village  offers  few  objects  of  interest, 
and,  as  the  moormen  were  anxious  to  reach  their  boat  before 
sundown,  we  followed  them  to  the  wharf,  where  we  treated 
our  military  escort  at  an  open-air  pulqueria,  while  the  pan- 
taneros  reported  at  the  agency  of  the  Mexican  steamer. 
The  soldiers  then  formed  in  double  file  and  marched  off  to 
the  fort,  and,  after  quartering  our  Indians  at  the  next  posada, 
we  accompanied  the  moormen  to  the  landing. 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF  THE  SIERRA   NEORA.  423 

The  steamer  was  moored  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
the  mainland,  at  the  Barra  del  Padre,  the  "  Parson's  Reef," 
an  ugly  rock,  but  a  golden  gate  to  a  swarm  of  ferrymen, 
who  convey  freight  and  passengers  in  boats  of  every  desired 
rig  and  size,  steam-tugs  being  unknown  in  the  Bay  of  Hon- 
duras. The  thrifty  moormen  selected  a  rowboat  of  a  kind 
that  can  be  hired  at  half-price  if  the  passengers  agree  to 
man  the  oars ;  the  steamer  had  already  hoisted  her  jpartkla- 
flag,  and,  as  there  was  a  chance  of  finding  an  American 
newspaper  on  board,  we  permitted  ourselves  to  be  lugged 
along.  Seen  from  a  distance,  the  Barra  del  Padre  looks  like 
a  narrow  chain  of  rocks  with  intervals  that  might  be  im- 
proved into  a  roadstead,  but  its  submarine  extent  is  unfor- 
tunately more  considerable :  between  the  mainland  and  the 
reef  an  archipelago  of  craggy  islets  becomes  visible  at  low 
water,  and  every  now  and  then  our  boat  grated  audibly 
against  the  serrucho  (cross-cut  saw)  of  a  subaqueous  ledge. 

"  No  hay  cuidado — no  danger,"  laughed  our  pilot :  "  the 
serruchos  are  all  worn  out, — the  big  boats  have  broken  their 
teeth." 

But  it  struck  rae  that  the  Bay  of  Honduras  must  be 
strangely  afflicted  with  what  our  sailors  call  iron-bound 
coasts  if  the  Mexicans  could  not  find  a  better  harbor  of 
their  own.  Their  territory  borders  the  bay  for  more  than 
a  hundred  miles,  but  Port  Isabel  nearly  monopolizes  the 
trade  of  Belize  and  Eastern  Yucatan. 

The  ridge  of  the  Parson's  Reef  is  about  four  feet  above 
low-water  mark,  but  storm-floods  have  frequently  submerged 
it,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  lighthouse,  the  buildings 
form  a  floating  village,  being  mere  wharf  boat  sheds  that 
rise  and  fall  with  the  tide.  A  Mexican  gunboat  and  an 
English  clipper  were  anchored  alongside  of  the  steamer, 
besides  a  considerable   numl)er  of  smaller  vessels  at  the 


424  SUMMERLAND   SKETCHES. 

lower  quay  and  in  the  offing.  There  were  sailors  of  various 
nationalities  squatting  about  the  Avharf  in  small  knots,  eat- 
ing, angling,  and  gambling.  Two  minutes  after  landing 
us  and  securing  his  boat  our  pilot  was  engaged  in  a  game 
of  sixpenny  monte  with  a  Spanish  sailor  and  a  mestizo 
'longshoreman. 

"  You'd  better  help  us  to  get  our  traps  on  board,"  ob- 
served the  leader  of  the  moormen  :  "  they  are  ringing  their 
bell  now." 

"  Campana  del  burro !"  grunted  the  Spaniard,  "  don't 
bother  this  man:  don't  you  see  he's  dealing?  You  have 
got  time  enough  and  to  spare." 

"  She  leaves  at  six  o'clock,  sharp,"  explained  the  pilot, — 
"  at  sundown,  amigo :  you  will  know  it  when  they  fire  their 
evening  gun  at  the  fortin." 

The  Fortin  de  Gonzales  stands  at  the  extremity  of  a 
steep  promontory,  on  the  site  of  a  larger  fortress  with  an 
arsenal  and  military  storehouses  which  wei-e  destroyed  by 
the  last  Spanish  garrison.  The  new  buildings  are  only 
used  as  barracks,  now  garrisoned  by  Mexican  troops,  but 
on  the  roof  of  the  guard-house  the  flags  of  Mexico  and 
Guatemala  fluttered  side  by  side.  Our  friends  seemed  to 
have  reached  their  quarters  in  the  mean  while,  and  I 
thought  I  recognized  the  fat  sergeant  among  a  group  of 
soldiers  who  waved  their  bandanas  from  the  parapet  of  the 
battery. 

At  last  the  boatswain's  whistle  summoned  "All  hands 
for'ard  !" — b'opa  adelante  ! — the  honest  pantaneros  wished 
us  "  long  life  and  a  thousand  such  merry  days,"  and  the 
ferryman  solicited  our  patronage  for  the  return-trip.  The 
reader  will  probably  join  the  home-bound  party,  but  before 
the  tender  casts  off"  her  hawser  let  him  tak&one  more  look 
at  the  inland  hills  and  the  airy  summits  of  the  Sierra  de 


THE    VIRGIN    WOODS   OF  THE  SIERRA   NEGRA.  425 

San  Tomas,  where  the  sun  of  Mexico  has  lighted  the  watch- 
fires  that  will  gleam  like  gold  when  the  last  twilight  of  the 
valleys  has  faded  into  night.  In  what  other  land  on  earth 
will  you  see  such  a  sunset,  or  such  lights  and  shades  re- 
flected from  every  cleft  and  every  rock  of  those  soaring 
heights  athwart  a  distance  of  forty  English  miles,  or  that 
dark-green  ridge  of  the  coast  range,  where  the  pine-trees 
stand  so  clearly  defined  against  the  northern  sky  that  one 
might  listen  for  the  murnuiring  of  the  sea-wind  in  their 
matted  branches? 

But  it  is  time  to  part.  Yes,  there  goes  the  gun  at  the 
battery,  and  as  the  steamer  swings  slowly  round  the  sol- 
diers on  the  parapet  throw  up  their  caps  and  send  a  ringing 
shout  across  the  water  :  "  Adios,  amigos  !"  while  the  moor- 
men  fire  off  their  trabuccos  and  wave  their  hats  from  the 
forecastle. 

Then,  gentle  reader,  let  us  join  in  the  answering  cheer, 
"  Adios  a  Mexico !"  shake  hands  with  your  guide,  and  take 
your  farewell  of  the  glorious  sun. 


THE   END. 


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